Box Score
Garden City, N.Y.- The Adelphi University men's basketball team played host to fellow Northeast-10 Conference member Merrimack College Wednesday night. The Panthers topped the Warriors 85-74 for their third straight victory and improve to 6-8 overall and 3-5 in NE-10. Merrimack falls to 6-7 overall and 3-5 in the conference.
For Adelphi,
John Calarco had a career-high 24 points, going 3-4 on 3-pointers and 5-8 at the free throw line. Two other players reached double figures;
Anthony Libroia with 17 points and
Bradley Simpson with 12 points to go along with his five rebounds.
For Merrimack, going 7-11 for 3-pointers, Gelvis Solano had four rebounds to compliment his 25 points on 7-11 shooting from behind the arc. Three other Warriors reached double figures; Mike Clifford, Tyler Young, and Troy Hammel with 12, 10 and 10, respectively. Clifford also notched nine boards in the loss.
Within the first five minutes of the game, the Panthers jumped out to an early 10-4 lead. A jumper from
Chris Ranglin sparked a six point run, with layups by Calarco and
Sean Crawford to increase their margin to 16-8.
The Warriors were unable to answer the strong offense of Adelphi, decreasing the pulling within as little as five throughout the entire half. Calarco's back to back three pointers brought the lead to 10 as the Panthers sat comfortably at 29-19 with 5:57 remaining.
Adelphi was able to keep the lead the entire first half, leading by as much as 12, courtesy of a triple by Libroia. With a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc, Merrimack's Solano posed a threat, scoring 14 in the half. Libroia was perfect at the line and was the leading scorer for the Panthers in the half with 13 points.
Merrimack would only be able to outscore the Panthers within the first five minutes of the second half, 11-9. A solid offense front by Adelphi kept the pace as they maintained a lead throughout. A three point jumper by Troy Hammel would bring the score within one 65-64 with 7:38 remaining, but
Cliff Brown's 3-pointer followed buckets from Simpson and Calarco and grew the lead back up to eight at 72-64.
Duane Morgan's dunk with 11 seconds left would seal the deal on the Panther's sixth victory of the season.
Next up, the Panthers will travel to Colchester, Vt. on Saturday, January 12, to take on the Purple Knights of St. Michael's College. The NE-10 contest is set to tip-off at 3 p.m.
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