Jan. 6, 2004

Box Score

Garden City, N. Y. - The Adelphi women topped St. Thomas Aquinas, 61-53, handing the Spartans their first conference loss, while extending their NYCAC win streak to four. The win also gives the Panthers consecutive victories over the top three teams in the NYCAC. The victory raises Adelphi's record to 5-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference, while St. Thomas Aquinas falls to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in NYCAC play.

Adelphi came out of the blocks cold, falling behind 11-2 on jumper by Brittney Thomas (Ossining, NY) with 15:17 left in the first half. The Spartans took their biggest lead of the half with 11:37 to play when Caitlin Hayes (Chester, NY) converted a transition bucket to give St. Thomas Aquinas an 11 point edge, 20-9.

But during the last 10 minutes of the first half the Panthers turned up the defense and chipped away at the Spartan lead. The Panthers clamped down on St. Thomas Aquinas, who converted no field goals in the last nine minutes of the half. Adelphi used a 15-6 run, which was capped off by a Tamarra Richardson (Brockton, Mass.), to pull even with the Spartans at 28 going in the half.

The Panthers came out of the locker room for the second half hot, jumping out to their first lead of the game when Melanie Mangone (Middle Village, NY) hit a jumper to open the scoring, giving Adelphi the lead, 30-28. St. Thomas Aquinas quickly took the lead back with 16:03 to play on an Anne Kretzer (Wharton, NJ) bucket.

But Adelphi battled back again and used a 6-0 run to open a seven point lead, 43-36, with 8:33 left to play. The Spartans answered right back and grabbed the lead again 5:32 left to play, when Kelly McManus (Pearl River, NY) hit two free throws to put St. Thomas Aquinas up, 47-45.

But that was the last time that the Spartans would have the lead, Adelphi clawed back and reclaimed the lead for good with 2:43 left when Mangone hit a jumper to put Adelphi up, 51-49. Senior Kerri Kirschbaum (Leonardo, NJ) hit seven free throws down the stretch and Meranne Whitney (Nashua, NH) hit a key three-pointer to ice the game for Adelphi.

Whitney led the Panthers with 19 points and six rebounds while Mangone chipped in 10 points. Carlyshia Hurdle (Brentwood, NY) and Laura Phillips (Plattsburgh, NY) grabbed a team-high eight rebounds apiece. Hayes scored a game-high 20 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds for St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomas chipped in 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Spartans.

Adelphi returns to action Thursday, January 8th when they travel to Flushing, NY to take on NYCAC foe Queens College in a 5 pm showdown.