Garden City, N.Y. – On the night when the team honored its seniors, the Adelphi University men's basketball team rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to see off the Golden Knights of the College of Saint Rose at the Center for Recreation and Sports on Wednesday nights. Outscoring the visitors 44-32 in the second half, the Panthers picked up the 67-60 win.
Justin Jenkins and
Duane Morgan led the way for Adelphi (5-19, 2-16 NE-10) on offense, scoring 22 and 19 points respectively.
Ryan DeNicola cleaned up on the glass for the Panthers, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds, while
Damon Coleman accounted for four of the home team's seven steals on the night. Saint Rose (9-17, 7-12 NE-10) had four players score in double figures in the setback.
Behind a flurry of early scoring, the Golden Knights tallied 13 of the first 16 points in the contest to take a 10-point lead less than five minutes into the game. Hot shooting from the floor, especially from behind the arc, allowed the visitors to maintain control for much of the first half. The visitors shot 6-15 from behind the arc in the half, and eventually held their largest lead of 15, 30-15, with 7:40 remaining.
From there, the Panther offense got going as a Jenkins three kicked off a 13-0 scoring run where Morgan tallied eight consecutive points to bring the Brown and Gold to within one possession, 30-28, with 3:28 to go. However, the visitors were able to quell the Adelphi momentum by scoring the last six points of the half to take a 36-28 lead into the locker room.
After a Max Weaver layup to open the second half restored the Golden Knights' 10-point advantage, the Panthers fought back from that deficit for the second time. A Coffey trey followed by consecutive buckets from Jenkins evened the score at 41-41, and although a Chris Dorgler layup momentarily restored the visitors' lead, five points from the hand of Coleman saw Adelphi take a 47-43 lead.
Out of the timeout, a Weaver three brought the Golden Knights to within one, but ensuing fouls sent Adelphi to the line on three consecutive possessions. Jenkins and Libroia combined to shoot 7-7 from the line to open up a 54-46 lead with 9:21 remaining.
Saint Rose ran off eight of the next nine points to pull the margin to 55-54 with 7:09 remaining, but the two teams continued to trade buckets as the Panthers remained in front. With Adelphi leading 63-59 with 1:00 to go, the visitors were forced to foul and Adelphi sank four of six from the line to come away with the 67-60 victory.
The Panthers return to action on the road on Saturday, when the head to Pace University for a 3:30 pm Northeast-10 contest.