Garden City, N.Y. – On Saturday, March 10 at noon, the Adelphi University Basketball team will take to the hardwood against cross town rivals, C.W. Post in the first round of the NCAA East Regional Tournament held on the campus of Assumption College in Worcester, MA. The contest should be a close one with defensive minded Panthers squaring off against a Pioneer team that has posted impressive scoring figures throughout the season.
Adelphi's Road to the NCAA Tournament
The Panthers (20-8, 16-6 NE-10), dropped their first game of the season to Southern Connecticut State by a score of 77-66. However, they bounced back by rattling off eight straight wins to launch themselves to the top of the Northeast-10 Conference early in the season. In the final 17 games, they compiled nearly double the amount of wins than losses. Sitting atop the conference standings for most of the year, they began to gain some recognition on the national stage, receiving votes for five straight weeks beginning in week seven.
As the regular season wound down, the Panthers dropped their final regular season contest to Southern Connecticut State yet again, ultimately resulting in a share of the NE-10 Regular season crown with Franklin Pierce who also had 16 conference wins with only six losses. Because Adelphi lost to FPU in the regular season, the Ravens were awarded the top seed in the conference playoffs while Adelphi earned the second seed.
Making quick work of tenth seeded New Haven, the Panthers advanced to the semifinals but were ousted by Stonehill; the eventual winner of the NE-10 Tournament. By virtue of their strong conference and region record, Dom Savino and his squad were seeded second in the first two East Region polls. As the field was announced for the NCAA Tournament, Adelphi earned a #3 seed and drew East Coast Conference Champions and #6 C.W. Post in the first round.
Defense, Defense, Defense
It's clear that the Panther's pride themselves on defense and that it is what accounts for winning 20 games this year. They rank eighth in the country in scoring defense, holding opposition to 60.1 ppg, and 19
th in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 40 percent. There have been just five occasions where teams have scored over 70 points.
Proving Nay Sayers Wrong
Since joining the NE-10 back during the 2009-10 season, Adelphi has not been ranked any higher than seventh in the preseason coaches poll, despite appearing in the championship game their first two years and winning in their second. This year, Adelphi was tabbed seventh and enjoyed the top spot throughout the season despite losing former standouts and offensive scoring machines in
Richard Byrd and
David Akinyooye.
All Around Scoring
First Team All-Region and Second Team All-Conference performer,
Robert Johnson, has led the way for the Panthers, scoring 12.9 ppg. The tandem force in the paint of big man
Bradley Simpson and
Chris Ranglin combine for an average of 20.7 ppg and 10.8 rebounds per game, making them big factors on both ends of the court.
Richard Harkins, the point man and quarterback of the offense, dished out 113 assists per game this year and moves into the top-10 all-time in career record books. Starter
Cliff Brown has been consistent throughout the year, shooting nearly 45 percent from the field while sixth man
John Calarco, is third on the team in scoring, averaging 9.1 points per game
Scouting the Pioneers
Stefan Bonneau is the engine that has powered the scoring machine to 84.1 points per contest which is good enough for sixth in the country and is 10.8 points better than opponents on average. This is, in part, due to making nearly 19 free throws per game, almost a fifth of their offense. On the boards, the Pioneers go after misses and outrebound opponents by a margin of 7.4 rebounds per game.
Bonneau himself is the third best scorer in the country, averaging 22.3 ppg which earned him the East Region Player of the Year. Teammate Tobin Carberry is second on the team in scoring, averaging 18.1 points while Vaugn Allen and Tyuan Williams combine for 23.4 points per game. Impressively, the quartet account for over three quarters of the offense.
The Rivalry
The storied rivalry between the two teams dates back to January 10, 1959 when Adelphi won the first meeting, 91-60, en route to George Faherty, and the program's, first 20 win season. Since then, the cross town rivals have met on 84 occasions with the last coming earlier this season on December 13, 2011 when Adelphi came out on top, 83-79. The Panthers hold a 44-40 lifetime advantage over their former East Coast Conference rivals.
Advancing
The winner of the game will move on to face the winner of #2 Stonehill vs. #7 District of Columbia on Sunday, March 11 at 5:00 pm. All games will be webcasted live via
www.Northeast10.tv. Additionally, be sure to follow
@AUPanthers on Twitter for live updates. To view the tournament central page, click
here.
