HAMBURG, N.Y. – The Hilbert College women's basketball team swept their Buffalo Cup opponents this fall semester as the Hawks earned a 69-56 AMCC victory over visiting D'Youville College.

Kelsi Ebert and Ashley Repine reached double digit scoring, but it was timely 3-point buckets by Emily Speidel and Samantha Heiler that ensured the home-court win.

D'Youville came out pressing to start the game and Hilbert handled it well.  The Hawks built a 22-7 1st quarter lead with Taylor Corts and Kelsi Ebert combining for a trifecta of deep shots early in the game. 

Hilbert's shooting touch cooled in the second session and the Spartans still had trouble finding the bottom of the net.  D'Youville scored one more point, taking a 9-8 advantage in that quarter, but still trailed 30-16 at half time.

Hilbert shot 33% from the floor and made four 3-pointers while D'Youville sank only 18% of the shots from the floor.  The Hawks built a 36-22 advantage on the glass by intermission with Ebert leading the way with eight points and Shannon Rogers grabbing eight rebounds, five offensive.

D'Youville stepped up their defensive effort and caused problems for the Royal and White at the start of the third quarter.  After just four minutes of action, the Spartans cut the score to one point, 30-29, after they connected for a bank, three-pointer.  Repine and Ebert responded with a pair of scores to stretch the lead back to five but D'Youville stayed close.

At 3:12, after just scoring another shot from the floor, D'Youville trailed by two points again.  Hilbert continued to find their way around the horn against the zone defense and Heiler made a nice cross-court pass to Speidel who sank her first "3" at 2:24.  Hilbert's next possession was identical with a one-two punch of Heiler to Speidel to extend the lead up to eight points and then Shannon Rogers took a pass at the foul line and dumped it to Heiler on the weak side for her long ball score.  The Hawks held a 47-38 advantage by the start of the fourth quarter.

In the final session, Hilbert did not allow D'Youville any closer than six points but the Hawks built as large as a 14 point lead with 4:03 to go.

Hilbert finished the game with a 20-rebound advantage over D'Youville, earning 22 offensive boards.  The Hawks held an edge on second-chance points (25-15) and points in the paint (30-20) thanks to their aggressive offensive rebounding.  Shannon Rogers lead all players with 13 rebounds and worked hard on offense getting a handle on nine rebounds.

Kelsi Ebert led the Hawks with 20 points (2 for 3 beyond the line) and dished for five assists along with three steals.  Ashley Repine shot just under 50% from inside the paint to post 15 points as well as seven rebound and two steals.

Hilbert completed the home portion of their 2016 schedule.  Up next is a road game at Franciscan who currently stands at 1-3 in the AMCC with their 65-63 lone victory over Altoona.  The 4-6 and 2-3 AMCC Hawks will tip at 2pm this Saturday, December 17.