Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. – The Adelphi women's basketball team recorded their first ever win in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament with a thrilling 80-77 overtime win against #9 American International College on Friday night at the Center for Recreation and Sports. With the win, Adelphi improves to 15-12 overall and advance to the quarterfinal round, where they will face #1 Bentley on Sunday, March 3. American International ends their season with an overall record of 14-13.
 
The Panthers were led by Sade Jackson, who scored 21 points and shot a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe. Jessica Kitrys added 17 points while Jenna Halaby rounded out the Adelphi double digit trio with 15. For the Yellow Jackets, Sydney Tepley led all scorers with 27 points and recorded a double-double, adding 14 boards. Briana Bishop shot 5-7 from three-point land and recorded 17 points, while Sarah Noble added 13 and Erica Johnson chipped in 12.
 
In an opening half in which the Panthers led for only 17 seconds, the Yellow Jackets moved out to an early 10-2 lead, but the Panthers cut the lead to 10-8, courtesy of buckets from Kitrys and Jackson. However, a 10-3 burst of scoring for the visitors over just two minutes, capped by a three from Briana Bishop put the Yellow Jacket up 20-11 with 10:22 to go.
 
Falling away from the basket, Halaby put in a two-point jumper as the shot clock expired to cut the deficit to 20-13 and Kelly Mannix followed with a long three from the left side corner to pull the Panthers to 20-16. Bishop responded with another trey for the visitors which pushed their advantage back to seven, 23-16, with 9:00 to go.
 
The Panthers would pull to within two at 7:05, 24-22, behind back-to-back scoring plays from Halaby, but Bishop drained another trey at 5:31 to pull her team ahead by two possessions, 27-22. The Yellow Jackets would remain in front by two possessions for most of the remaining time in the half until Jackson put in another layup with 44 ticks of the clock remaining to put the Panthers in the locker room down by just three, 31-28.
 
Out of halftime, Samantha Milhaven drained a long two-point jumper to pull the Panthers within one, 31-30; the hosts would take a brief lead of 32-31 as Jackson hit two of two from the charity stripe with 18:19 remaining.
 
American International reclaimed a 35-32 lead on the back of five points from Tepley with 17:03 to go, but Kitrys and Jackson combined for four points to nudge the Panthers ahead, 36-35, at 16:02. The back-and-forth scoring became the story of the second half, as neither team could seize hold of momentum for the majority of it.
 
Kitrys converted on a three-point play to put the hosts up by two, 39-37, with 15:12 to go. Just 17 seconds later, however, Noble drained two from the line to knot the action at 39-39. Tara Flynn and Noble exchanged long threes from the left corner to once again knot the action, this time at 42-42.
 
The teams continued to trade buckets, resulting in ties at both 44 and 46. Bishop drained another trey for American International to put them in the lead by three, 49-46, with 9:35 to go; however, Jackson answered for the Panthers and converted on a three-point play to tie it up at 49.
 
With seven minutes to go, the visitors took a four point lead, 54-50, on the back of a three-point  jumper from Erica Johnson; off of a steal from Jackson, Halaby drove to the basket and put it in to cut the deficit to just  two, 54-52. With 4:52 remaining, Jackson sunk two from the line to tie the score yet again, this time at 54-54.

The Yellow Jackets would open up 9-4 scoring burst to take a five point, 63-58 lead with just 2:47 remaining in regulation. The visitors would continue to lead by five, 66-61 after Tepley hit one of two from the line with just 1:31 to go.
 
With just 55 seconds remaining, Lauren Nuss drained a three to pull the Panthers within one, 67-66, but Noble hit a pair from the line to push the lead back to three, 69-66. Jackson put in a quick two to bring the deficit back to just one, 69-68. After Johnson only managed to hit one of two from the line, the Panthers had possession with just 25 seconds remaining.
 
With four seconds remaining in regulation, Jackson dodged two defenders and put the ball in underneath the basket to tie the game at 70-70 and send it to overtime.
 
In overtime, the Panthers took a quick 72-70 lead as Jackson found Kitrys on the inside for the score. However, five points from Johnson behind two and three-point jumpers put American International in front, 75-72 with 3:47 remaining in extra time.

On the ensuing possession, Jackson hit a pair from the charity stripe to pull the Panthers within one, and Halaby drove to the basket to put Adelphi up one, 76-75. However, Tepley answered with a two point jumper to put the visitors back on top, 77-76 with 1:48 to go.
 
With 48 seconds remaining in the overtime period, Nuss drained her second clutch three of the night from the left side to put the Panthers up 79-77 and gave them a lead they would not relinquish as Nuss made one of two from the line with 19 seconds to play to secure an 80-77 win for the Brown and Gold.

Adelphi will return to action in the Quarterfinals of the NE-10 Championship on Sunday, March 3 at 3:00 pm in Waltham, Massachusetts against top seeded Bentley University.