Garden City, N.Y. - After shooting 66% from the field in the first half, the No. 8-seeded Holy Family Tigers continued their momentum en route to upsetting the top-seeded Adelphi University women's basketball team, 84-79, in the first round of the NCAA East Regional on Friday night. The victory marks the first time that a #8 seed has defeated the #1 seed in the Division II East Regional since the field expanded to 64 teams in 2003.
Kelly Mannix and
Anh-Dao Tran ended their careers with 25 points apiece for Adelphi (28-4), while
Calli Balfour added 12 and
Sierra Clark came off the bench to chip in 11. As a team, the Panthers shot 39.4% from the field while connecting on 10 out of 31 attempts from behind the arc. The Tigers (21-10) pulled off the victory courtesy of 23 points from Jill Conroy, who went 8-13 from the field and 3-5 from behind the arc, and 21 points from Erin Fenningham.
A three from Tran kicked off the scoring for both teams, but the Panthers surrendered the next eight points to fall behind, 8-3. The Tigers hit their first three shots from downtown in the early going and Fenningham hit her only attempt from behind the arc with 6:16 remaining to taking a 25-21 lead. The Brown and Gold continued to trail until a deep three from Tran tied things up, 27-27.
From there, however, the Tigers embarked on a 12-0 run over four minutes to increase their lead to double figures while holding Adelphi without a field goal. In the final minute, Mannix hit a pair from beyond the arc to offset a pair of free throws from Fenningham and put Adelphi in the locker room trailing by eight, 41-33.
Just as she did to close the first, Mannix connected from downtown to cut the deficit to five, 41-36, to open the second half. The Tigers' hot shooting continued, however, as a 12-3 run bookend by threes from Conroy put the visitors ahead, 53-39 with 14:56 to play.
The two teams continued to trade buckets before Adelphi got its teeth into the contest trailing by 16, 56-40. An 8-2 spurt by the Brown and Gold cut the lead to 10, and the Panthers continued to make headway on offense. A
Sierra Clark jumper kicked things off for the Brown and Gold with 10:04 remaining before a three from Mannix and consecutive buckets by Tran and Balfour made it a one-point affair, 62-61, with 8:10 remaining.
The Tigers always had the answer, however, as Adelphi never managed to tie the score. While the Panthers managed to keep it a one-possession contest, sharp shooting from the free throw line helped the Tigers' cause as the minutes ticked away. Fenningham, Conroy and Kasey Woetzel went a perfect 6-of-6 combined at the line to help Holy Family push out to a seven-point lead 70-63, with 4:53 to go.
A Mannix three off of a dish from Tran again brought the Panthers to within one, 74-73, with 2:02 to go, but more solid shooting from the line by the Tigers kept the Brown and Gold at bay. An 8-4 run, with six points coming from the charity stripe, put the #8 seeds up five, 82-77, with under a minute to go. While Balfour was fouled and sunk both from the line to make a one possession, 82-79, game, the Panthers were unable to get any closer in the final seconds.
Tran's last-ditch three-point effort rimmed out with 31 seconds to play, and Sarah Pawlak converted on two of her four foul shots in the final seconds to complete the stunner, 84-79.
Adelphi ends their season at 28-4, tying a program-record for wins in a season. The Panthers claimed the Northeast-10 Southwest Division title in the regular season, and captured the program's first NE-10 Tournament crown last weekend.
