Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The men's basketball team played host to cross town rivals, the C.W. Post Pioneers in a non-conference matchup earlier tonight. The Panthers' hot shooting in the  first half gave them as much as a 24 point lead, but their challengers did not go away easily. 54 second half Pioneer points turned it into a four point game with under three minutes to go. However, the charge was haulted as Adelphi came away with their eighth straight victory, 83-79. With the win, the Panthers advance to 8-1, 6-1 NE-10 while C.W. Post moves to 7-2, 1-0 ECC.

Robert Johnson led the Panthers with 21 points whie three of his teammates also tallied double digit scoring. Bradley Simpson sunk 16 while John Calarco added 12 with Richard Harkins doing his part with 11 points.

The Panthers came out firing on all cylinders, holding C.W. Post scoreless through the first 5:05 and on the strength of 10 points from Simpson, used a 17-2 run to open up the first six minutes of the opening act.  A Tobin Carberry jumper at 8:38 brought the the score to 21-13 in favor of Adelphi, but the Panthers slowly began to extend their lead once again.

An alley-oop from Terry Coleman to game high scorer, Stefan Bonneau tried to spark an offensive turnaround, but Adelphi's own Duane Morgan responded with a slam dunk of his own on a feed from Simpson to keep the Pioneers in check.

With 2:02 remaining in the half, back to back free throws by Johnson put his team's lead to a peak of 24 points. Ending the first twenty minutes, the Panthers headed into the locker room with a comfortable 18 point cushion thanks to 56.7 percent shooting from the field and 42.9 percent shooting from behind the arc.

In the final act, Adelphi seemed to have things wrapped up with a 20 point lead with 12:55 remaining, but in a matter of minutes, their counterparts used a 13-0 run over the ensuing 4:14 to make it a nine point game. The Pioneers were crashing the boards hard, grabbing 11 second half offensive rebounds and creating second chance opportunities.

A 10 point lead with 3:28 was quickly cut to four within a minute, courtesy of back to back treys from Bonneau. The Panthers have been a great free throw shooting team on the year, topping the Northeast-10 with a 79.2 shooting percentage, but suprisingly, they struggled as the game came down to the wire, missing five in the second half and three in the final 70 seconds.

Nevertheless, they were able to connect on seven of 10 from the charity stripe in the final 1:11.The Pioneers attempted three desparation attempts from the three line but were unable to connect as time wound down with the score reading 83-79 in favor of Adelphi.

Bonneau led all comers with 29 points. Harkins tallied a season high eight assists in the win while the Panthers had scoring from nine different players on the night.

Adelphi will return to action on Saturday, December 17 when they host the Deacons of Bloomfield College at 3pm in the first game of the Holiday Tournament. You can watch the game live at www.aupanthers.tv or follow live updates via Twitter  (@AUPanthers).