Box Score Garden City, N.Y. – After holding a halftime lead, the Adelphi University men's basketball team fell to the Chargers of the University of New Haven, 70-67, on Tuesday night at the Center for Recreation and Sports. With the loss, the Panthers close out their season 5-21 overall and 3-17 in the Northeast-10, while the Chargers advance to the postseason with a record of 19-7 and a 14-6 clip in conference play.
The Panthers placed four players in double figures, as
Anthony Libroia led the Brown and Gold with 20 points.
Duane Morgan tallied 16, Boris Foduop recorded 12 and
Ethan Hamlet added 10. For the Chargers, Justin Exum and Eric Anderson each tallied 17 points.
Fodouop opened the scoring for Adelphi just 40 seconds into the game, and consecutive threes from Morgan, Hamlet and Libroia would put the Panthers on top, 13-5. The Brown and Gold would lead by as many as 16, as a Matt Citron jumper brought the score to 25-9 with 10:48 to play in the half.
The visitors chipped away at the lead from there, talling six straight points in just over a minute to cut the lead to 10, 25-15. Back-and-forth scoring would ensure and the Blue and Gold pulled to within seven at 33-26, the closest margin of the game to that point, behind an Exum layup with 1:34 remaining.
However, as a team, the Panthers shot 13-25 from the field and 5-10 from behind the arc in the first half, taking a 35-28 lead into the locker room.
To open the second half, the Chargers' Eric Anderson drained a jumper just over 30 seconds in to bring the score to 35-30, and an Ashanti DePass triple made it a one possession game, 39-36, at the 15:53 mark. The Panthers would keep that three-point lead for another two minutes, but Jonny Ocasio and Exum would each be fouled and sink both attempts from the foul line to give the Blue and Gold their first lead of the game at 42-41.
The Chargers took a three point lead at 44-41, but Fodouop converted on a layup and one opportunity with 13:31 remaining to knot the score at 44-44. A Libroia jumper put the Panthers back in the lead briefly, but a Jamal Mosley three saw the Chargers reclaim the lead, 47-46, with 12:46 to go.
The Chargers opened up a five point, 53-48 advantage with just over eight minutes to play, as the Adelphi offense could not take advantage of numerous scoring opportunities to that point. However, the Panthers would take advantage of an 8-2 scoring run over the next three minutes to reclaim the lead, 56-55.
After a two minute scoring drought, a Libroia jumper put Adelphi up by three, before an Adkins layup again pulled the visitors within one at 58-57. Out of the timeout, a Hamlet jumper again restored Adelphi's three-point lead, and a three from his hand put Adelphi up 63-57 with less than two minutes to play.
Adkins hit two free throws and Eric Anderson put in a layup to pull the Chargers to within 63-61, but Libroia hit two from the line to restore the Panthers' four-point advantage. Anderson converted on a three-point play for New Haven to again trim the deficit to one, but Libroia took advantage of two more freebies to put the score at 67-64 with 33 seconds remaining.
Exum was fouled by Hamlet with 27 seconds remaining and he made both free throws to once again bring the Blue and Gold to within one. A Libroia turnover put the ball in the Chargers' hands with 25 seconds to go, and
Ryan DeNicola fouled Exum who again hit both of his free throw attempts to put the Chargers back ahead.
The Panthers were forced to foul and Adkins hit both of his attempts from the line to seal the victory for New Haven and end Adelphi's season.