Pleasantville, N.Y. -- The Adelphi University women's basketball team dropped its season-opener for the first time in three years on Saturday night, falling to Long Island rival NYIT by a 75-65 final score on the campus of Pace University on the first day the ECC/NE-10 Challenge. 

Despite getting a team-high 16 points from Calli Balfour off the bench, the Panthers (0-1) were plagued by foul trouble, as three players fouled out amongst 26 team fouls. Lauren Nuss net 11 points on the night, while Samantha Brenner pulled down a team-high 11 boards. 

In the opening quarter of the contests, the two teams were nearly even for the duration until Audrey Knowlton hit a three and Shanice Allen capped off the five-point run with a jumper to put the Bears ahead 14-9. The score remained within that five-point margin in the first half, and a Sierraa Schrader layup with under a minute to play cut the NYIT lead to three at the half, 26-23. 

At the 7:02 mark in the third quarter, Nuss hit a three from downtown and Natalie Fekula drained a jumper from the free throw line to draw the Panthers even at 30-30, and Adelphi took the lead behind back-to-back buckets from Ashley Gomez and Sierra Clark -- 34-31. A short while later, eight unanswered points by the Bears restored their five point lead, as Adelphi once again had to fight from behind. 

Down by just three entering the fourth quarter, the Panthers found themselves down by 10 with 5:41 remaining as the Bears continued to press on offense. A Balfour layup and a Nuss trey cut the deficit to just five, but the deficit loomed too large for the Brown and Gold to overcome.

The Panthers return to action tomorrow against LIU Post in the second game of the ECC/NE-10 Challenge. Tipoff is slated for 3:30 pm.

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About Adelphi University Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past six seasons has collected 16 regular season conference titles, 20 tournament championships, 27 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 President's Cup twice (2013 and 2014), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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