Have you ever heard of the old analogy of a snowball rolling down a hill? Last Tuesday, the snowball rolled down that hill for the Buffalo State women’s basketball team. With every turnover and every missed shot, the mistakes kept mounting and the Bengals ultimately couldn’t overcome them.

Buffalo State’s women’s basketball team traveled to take on rival New Paltz in the SUNYAC Playoff quarterfinals last Tuesday in a rematch of the regular season finale just four days prior.

The Bengals and Hawks began the game with back and forth play. The Bengals held a brief 9-6 lead early on, but Buffalo State began to make too many mistakes, and New Paltz capitalized.

As with losses against Geneseo and Cortland earlier in the year, a strong start was followed by a sloppy and uninspired finish. Missed shots, turnovers and struggles against the press piled up and the momentum quickly shifted to the Hawks.

The first half was closed out by a 22-3 run by New Paltz. Buffalo State couldn’t find a way to even begin to close in on the 29-point lead owned by the Hawks with 14 minutes to play.

Like senior guard Olivia Luciani said before the game, they had to keep their composure against the press, which they were flustered by in the previous meeting, they failed to do so.

30 turnovers, 33 percent shooting from the field and a 52 percent night from the line compared to 46 percent from the field, 76 percent from the line and only 17 turnovers for the opposition will do in any basketball team. New Paltz is a physical team, and that helped carry them to their 79-58 victory.

“Had way too many turnovers and New Paltz just went on a run that we never returned from,” Luciani said, reflecting on her last game as a Bengal.

The Bengals finished the season with a 12-14 record. With only three seniors on the roster this season, the team is still fairly young and will get most of their starters back next year. The underclassmen will have to step up to return to the SUNYAC playoffs for a sixth season in seven years.