Dec. 21, 2007

Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi men's basketball team closed out the 2007 portion of their schedule by hosting Bryant University on Friday, December 21. The Panthers built a 24-20 halftime lead, but could not hold on, falling 51-50. The loss drops Adelphi to 5-4 overall, while Bryant improves to 5-4 with the win.

The Panthers opened up the game hot, outscoring Bryant, 11-2 over the first six and a half minutes of action to take a nine point lead. The Bulldogs answered with nine straight points to knot the game at 11 before the Panthers scored six unanswered points to take a 17-11 lead with 7:56 left in the half.

Bryant battled back again, pulling to within one, 17-16 on a Peter Lambert three-pointer with 4:43 remaining before Adelphi closed the half with a 7-4 spurt to take a 24-20 lead into the intermission.

Sky Khaleel opened the second half of action with a lay-up to give Adelphi a six point lead, 26-20. Bryant responded by outscoring Adelphi 12-6 over the next eight minutes to take a six point lead of their own, 38-32.

The Panthers cut the Bulldog bulge to two twice, before closing to within one, 49-48, on a Mike McDuffie three-point play with 2:09 left. 19 seconds later Khaleel sunk two free throws to give Adelphi their first lead since the 15:17 mark of the second half, 50-49. With 1:27 left on the clock a Chris Diasparra foul sent Jon Ezeokoli to the line where he made one of two free throws, knotting the game at 50.

Niether team was able to score over the next 80 seconds, when Ezeokoli was fouled with 1.9 ticks left on the clock. He converted the second of two attempts to give the Bulldogs a 51-50 win.

The Panthers return to action on January 2, 2008 when they play host to Franklin Pierce at 7:00 pm in Woodruff Hall.