Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The men's basketball team hosted the Riverhawks of UMass Lowell in a Northeast-10 Conference contest earlier tonight. Adelphi led for just 4:10 out of the entire game, but had the advantage when it mattered down the stretch. With 34 total fouls called on the visitors, 33 of the Panther's points on the night came from the charity stripe enabling them to come away with the 61-53 victory. With the win, Adelphi advances to 11-3, 8-2 NE-10 while UML  moves to 9-5, 5-5 NE-10.

John Calarco was the game high scorer with 17 points and six rebounds while Bradley Simpson posted a double-double with 12 rebounds and 16 points on 4-5 shooting from the field and a perfect 8-8 from the foul line. Chris Ranglin added eight rebounds and 11 points, all coming from from free throws while Duane Morgan tallied six points and eight rebounds.

It was a slow first half with Cliff Brown eventually notching his team's first bucket after 3:47 of play. Both sides struggled from the field with UML shooting 31 percent from the field while Adelphi was .286. At 12:26, a Calarco jumper knotted the game at a low scoring 7-7 contest. Akeem WIlliams drained a three which was followed up by a layup by Kerry Weldon to give the Riverhawks a five point advantage, but Simpson converted on a three point play to bring the game to within a bucket by the midway point.

UML went on an 11-3 run, capped by a Williams Jumper and then found themselves up by nine with 5:50 to play. Adelphi's defense stepped up and held their counterparts scoreless the rest of the half while they went on to score nine unanswered points sparked by two free throws by Ranglin and capped with back to back successful attempts from the foul line by Simpson to bring the game at 25 apiece.

In the second frame, UML slowly began to pull away with a dunk by Antonio Bivins, giving his team momentum to build back a 10 point lead with 12:22 remaining. However, foul trouble forced starters to sit, giving Adelphi an opportunity to begin clawing their way back into the game. Within a 29 second span, Ranglin connected on three free throws and Morgan was good on a layup to cut the lead down to five.

Robert Johnson, who was relatively quite throughout the game, came up big with a trey at 5:11 to bring his team within a point. With 2:53 remaining, Simpson was sent to the line for two and made both attempts to tie the game at 52 apiece.

44 seconds later, Ranglin returned to the line once again and sunk both shots, giving Adelphi their first lead in over 16 minutes. With 1:52 left, Williams made good on a charity stripe attempt, but UML would be haulted in their tracks, being held scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Johnson, Brown and Calarco iced the game with a total of seven free throws in the remaining 1:09 to secure their 11th win of the season.

Adelphi shot 75 percent from the line (33-44).

The men's basketball team returns to the hardwood on Saturday, January 14th when they travel up to Rindge, NH to take on the 10-4 Ravens of Franklin Pierce at 3:30pm.