New Paltz Women’s Basketball Falls to UMass-Dartmouth in the Sweet 16 Round
Box Score
AMHERST, Mass. – The 2016-17 basketball season comes to a close for the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team as the Hawks dropped a 67-57 decision to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening, held in LaFrak Gymnasium on the campus of Amherst College.
"You have to give credit to UMass Dartmouth, they are a really good team and they played really well," said head coach Jamie Seward. "They made some plays and made some shots when they had to but at the same time we did everything we needed to do and I could not be more proud of this team, regardless of the result.
I am just really blessed to be able to say that I was the coach of this team."
The Hawks, who made it to the program's first-ever appearance in the Sweet 16, conclude the season, 20-8, overall. The Corsairs move on to their first appearance in the Elite Eight and will play the winner of the Amherst/Babson game tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Despite a rought start in the opening period that found the Hawks trailing, 20-10, New Paltz gained momentum in the second quarter, outscoring the Corsairs 18-13. The Hawks were able to trim the deficit to 24-23 before leveling the score shortly after a made free throw by senior guard/forward Morgan Roessler (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa). The Corsairs managed to regain a slight lead as time ran down on the clock, with New Paltz only trailing by five (33-28) at intermission.
The Hawks remained close behind the Corsairs in the third quarter, ultimately chipping the score to 42-41 at the 1:41 mark but Dartmouth was able to connect on several shots that had them once again leading by five. New Paltz fought hard in the final period but the Corsairs evaded capture as strong free throw shooting pushed them to a comfortable 10-point lead to seal the final 67-57 score for their program's first-ever Sweet 16 win.
The Corsairs limited New Paltz to a 31.1 (23-of-74) field goal percentage while shooting 48.9 percent (23-of-47) from the floor and held a 41-37 edge in rebounds. The Hawks concluded the evening with 16 bench points and converted 17 points off turnovers.
Sophomore guard Lindsay Bettke (Pelham, N.Y./The Ursuline School) paced the team offensively with 15 points while freshman guard Paige Niemeyer (North Chatham, N.Y./Ichabod Crane) added 10 points for New Paltz along with five boards, two assists, two blocks and one steal. Senior guard/forward Kit Small (Slingerlands, N.Y./Academy of the Holy Names) also chipped in 10 points, five rebounds and two assists while also collecting a team-high four steals. Senior forward Courtney Irby (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in the loss with Roessler adding six of her own.
Junior forward Alicia Kutil paced the Corsairs with 17 points and nine rebounds while senior guard/forward Rachel McCarron added 15 points, three assists and two blocks.
