Feb. 28, 2007

Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi men's basketball team's achilles heel turned into a strength in the Panthers East Coast Conference (ECC) tournament quarterfinal match-up with fifth seeded Queens. The fourth seeded Panthers made 23-31 free throws, including hitting on five of seven attempts in the last 30 seconds to secure the win, 85-79. With the victory Adelphi advances to the semifinals of the ECC tournament and improve to 16-12 overall, while Queens closes out their season at 14-14.

Adelphi and Queens both came out hot as they traded baskets early, with the Panthers taking a 13-10 lead, 15:21 into the contest on the strength of eight points from Mike Mosby (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.). Kimani Blaize (Brooklyn, N.Y.) converted two free throws at the 14:57 mark, which sparked an 8-2 Adelphi spurt that made the score 21-12, with 14:11 left in the half.

The Panthers increased their lead to as much as 17, on a Samuel Jenkins (Brooklyn, N.Y.) made three-pointer with 8:45 left, before Queens woke up. The Knights closed out the half by out scoring the Panthers 18-11 over the final eight minutes to cut the Adelphi lead to just 10, 49-39, at the break.

Adelphi pushed their advantage to 12 points three times in the first four minutes of action and led by 11, 60-49, with 13:05 left in the game. At that point, Bradd Wierzbicki converted three free throws, which started a 9-0 Knights run that brought Queens to within two points, 60-58, with 10:37 remaining.

The Panthers increased their lead to six points, five times over the next eight minutes, including holding a six-point edge, 78-72, with 2:13 left in the game. Queens used a 5-0 spurt to close to within one points, 78-77 with 57 ticks left on the clock.

A Mosby three-point play with 30 seconds left gave the Panthers a four points cushion, 81-77 and Adelphi converted four of six free throw attempts down the stretch to secure the win, 85-79.

Wierzbicki led five Knights in double figures with 20 points, while Hassan Washington chipped in 17 points and six rebounds. Mike Liander, Lance Hazel and Marvin Lawrence also hit double digits, adding 13, 11 and 10 points respectively.

Mosby led the way for Adelphi with a career-high 27 points and seven rebounds. Donnell Cummings (South Ozone Park, N.Y.) added 22 points and five rebounds, while Thomas Paul (Plainview, N.Y.) chipped in seven assists.

Adelphi returns to action on Saturday, March 3 when they take on top seeded NYIT at 5:00 pm in the ECC Semifinals in Bridgeport, Connecticut.