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ONEONTA, N.Y. -- Host Hartwick gained sole possession of first place in the Empire 8 Conference standings Friday as the Hawks avenged an earlier defeat with a 76-56 women's basketball victory over Nazareth at Lambros Arena.

The Golden Flyers came into Friday's matchup with six wins in their last seven games, but they dropped to 10-6 overall and 5-2 in E8 games with the defeat. Hartwick, which lost to Nazareth 80-73 on Jan. 4, is 8-1 in league play and 15-3 overall.

Rachel Benedict posted another double-double -- her 11th of the season -- for the Golden Flyers with 16 points and 13 rebounds and Jadyn Abrams added 18 points, but they couldn't offset the balanced Hawks, who had five players with double-digit point totals, led by Caitlin Corbett's game-high 20 points.

Nazareth got an early three-pointer from Benedict, but the Hawks took control thereafter as they led 22-12 after one period and 45-34 at halftime. The lead continued to swell into the third quarter, before Nazareth staged a scoring threat in the fourth.

A 9-1 scoring run at the start of the fourth quarter -- fueled by a three-pointer by Benedict and six points from Abrams -- closed the deficit to 10, 62-52, but Hartwck scored the next 11 points to erase any Nazareth comeback hopes.

Hatwick shot well for the game by hitting 29 of 59 shots (49.2%) with four three-pointers. Nazareth, meanwhile, shot just 29.7% (19-for-64) from the field. Freshman Caley Cornwell came off the bench to add seven points and Erica Bradley had five.

Nazareth will try to salvage a weekend split of E8 Conference games Saturday when it visits Utica at 2 p.m.