Jan. 15, 2011

Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi University men's basketball team played host to visiting Merrimack College on Saturday, January 15 in a clash of nine win, Northeast-10 members. The Panthers trailed by as many as 14 and led for just the final 53 seconds of the second, but pulled out a one point, 58-57 victory. With the win Adelphi reached the 10 win mark and is currently 10-5 overall and 6-5 in the NE-10, while Merrimack falls to 9-5 and 5-5 in conference.

David Akinyooye led the way for Panthers with 24 points and 15 rebounds, hitting on all eight of his free throw attempts. Richard Byrd also reached double figures with a hard earned 13 points and seven rebounds and Chris Ranglin added 11 points, nine in the first half, and five rebounds.

Adelphi, trailing since the 15 minute mark of the first half, had the ball with 1:07 on the clock down one after a Byrd steal. Byrd went straight to the Merrimack hoop, converting a lay-up with 53 seconds on the clock to put the Panthers ahead by one, 58-57.

The Warriors responded with a Wayne Mack jumper that was off the mark and the rebound was corralled by Byrd, who was fouled with 12 ticks left on the clock. Byrd missed the front end of a one-and-one and Merrimack grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball down court looking to get one last shot off, which was a contested lay-up by Mack that missed the mark, giving Adelphi the 58-57 victory.

The opening minutes of the game seemed like a one-on-one battle between Adelphi's Ranglin and Merrimack's Darin Mency, as both players traded buckets early. The Warriors built a 10-9 lead, 5:42 into the contest, on six points from Mency, including a four-point play, while Adelphi countered with seven points from Ranglin.

Merrimack opened the game up from there, going on a 15-2 run over the next five minutes, taking a 14 point lead, 25-11 with 9:16 on the clock. However, the Panthers responded with a 10-0 outburst, capped by a Byrd jumper, to whittle the Warrior bulge down to just four, 25-21 with 3:36 on the clock. Despite their strong play in the final 10 minutes of the first half, Adelphi would enter intermission, trailing by eight, 32-24.

Adelphi opened the second half with three lay-ups and a foul shot to pull within three points, 34-31 at the 17:16 mark, but Merrimack would counter with a quick spurt and still held a nine point lead, 49-40 with 10:50 remaining. The Panthers pulled within two points, 49-47 with 9:38 on the clock, but another Merrimack spurt pushed the lead back to six, 53-47 with 6:58 to play.

From there Adelphi would out score Merrimack, 7-4 over the next four minutes, to pull within three, 57-54 on another Byrd lay-up with 2:53 on the scoreboard. Two Richard Harkins free throws with 2:41 left would pull the Panthers to within one point and set up Byrd's heroics.

Adelphi returns to action on Wednesday, January 19 when they play host to Bentley University at 7:30 pm.