March 4, 2006

Box Score

Brookville, N.Y. - The Adelphi men's basketball team held fifth seeded Concordia College to just 30 points in pulling out a 62-30 victory in the semifinals of the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament (NYCAC). With the win the top-seeded Panthers advance to the tournament finals to take on the winner of #2 University of Bridgeport and #3 Queens College.

The win runs Adelphi's win streak to a region best 17 games and improves the Panthers record to 25-4. It was also the fifth time this season that Adelphi has held an opponent to 40 points or less. With the loss Concordia closes out their season at 11-18.

Adelphi crept out to an 8-3 lead on the strength of two Aaron Cummings (Bay Shore, N.Y.) three-pointers and a jumper by Jamaal Wagner (Jamaica, N.Y.). The Panthers continued their run scoring, five points over a 39 second span to push their lead to 13-3 with 12:09 remaining in the first half.

With Adelphi leading 22-5 the Clippers came alive, going on a 6-2 run, that included four points from Jonathan Garrett (Hollis, N.Y.), to cut the Panthers lead to 13 with 2:55 to play. Adelphi pushed the lead to 16 on a three-pointer by Samuel Jenkins (Brooklyn, N.Y.) but Concordia scored the last two buckets of the half to enter the locker room trailing by just 12, 27-15.

The Panthers kept Concordia off the board for the first four minutes of the second half, securing a 31-15 advantage. Adelphi kept the pressure on from there, outscoring the Clippers 17-5 over the next 7:10 to push their bulge to 28 points, 48-20 and put the game out of reach.

Andre Taylor (Freeport, N.Y.) was the only Clipper in double figures, posting a double double scoring a game-high 15 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. David Swaby (New Rochelle, N.Y.) also had a strong game, scoring eight points and nine rebounds.

Cummings had a solid all around game for the Panthers, scoring 13 points, pulling down nine rebounds and handing out four assists. Donnell Cummings (South Ozone Park, N.Y.) also reached double figures for Adelphi with 10 points, including hitting on 2-3 from beyond the arc.

The #1 seed Panthers will appear in the conference title game on Sunday, March 5 at 2:30 pm on the campus of LIU-C.W. Post in Brookville, New York.