Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. – The Adelphi University women's basketball team surrendered a nine point halftime lead in the last regular season home contest of the year to Le Moyne College at the Center for Recreation and Sports on Saturday afternoon, eventually falling by a 58-55 final score. With the loss, the Panthers fall to 13-12 overall and 10-11 in the Northeast-10 Conference while the Dolphins improve to 6-19 overall and 4-17 in the conference.
The only Panther to score in double figures in the contest was
Jessica Kitrys, who dropped down 13 points.
Tara Flynn added nine and
Sade Jackson and
Shannon Flynn each had eight. For Le Moyne, Torie Lee led all scorers with 18 points and Tessa Pucello added 12.
Adelphi started the game on an 8-4 run, capped by a three from
Lauren Nuss at 16:52. The Panthers led by four on two other occasions, as a three from
Tara Flynn put them ahead 12-8 at 14:52 and a
Samantha Milhaven layup gave them a 14-10 advantage at 14:02.
Following a three minute scoring drought for both teams, a pair of free throws from Alex Marple leveled proceedings at 18-18, and Marple would lay it in to give Le Moyne their first lead of the game, 20-18, at 8:18. Jackson answered with a three just 24 seconds later to put the Brown and Gold back on top, 21-20.
Another three-point jumper from
Tara Flynn put the Panthers back on top in the half for good, as it gave them a 24-22 lead with 6:07 remaining. From there, Adelphi ended the half on a 10-3 run to lead 34-25 at intermission. The scoring streak included Flynn's third trey of the half, four points from Kitrys and a three-point jumper from
Brenna Gonsalves.
The Dolphins opened the second half at a furious offensive pace, scoring seven points to make it a one possession game, 34-32.
Shannon Flynn drained a three from the left side to open up a five point Panther advantage, 37-32, but Maddie Hahesy answered with a three of her own and Lee added another to put the Dolphins in front, 38-37.
The lead was brief as
Shannon Flynn and Kitrys sunk back-to-back layups to lead 41-38, but Lee hit another from behind the arc to tie the game, 41-41, with 14:51 to go. The teams traded buckets over the next few minutes of action, but the Dolphins would start to pull away as two-point jumpers from Emily Greer and Maggie Brown gave the visitors a 53-48 lead with 8:15 remaining.
The Dolphins took their largest lead of the game, 56-48, behind a layup from Marple with 5:58 remaining. It would prove to be the visitors' last field goal of the game. From there, Kitrys would knock in a layup from underneath the basket and she and
Ifeanyi Ofili combined to shoot three of four from the charity stripe to pull within three, 56-53, with 3:16 to go.
Jackson took a breakaway layup to the basket with just 33 seconds to go to pull within one, 56-55. The Panthers were forced to foul late and Pucello hit a pair from the charity stripe to give the visitors a 58-55 lead. With 10 seconds remaining, the Brown and Gold were unable to get a clean shot at the basket and Nuss' desperate attempt to tie it fell short.
The Panthers return to action in their regular season finale on Wednesday, February 26, at Southern Connecticut State University. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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