Garden City, N.Y. - Behind double-digit performances from three starters, the Adelphi University women's basketball team, seeded #1 out of the Southwest Division, held off a spirited challenge from the Ravens of Franklin Pierce University, the #2 seeds from the Northeast, and came away with a 65-54 victory in the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament semifinals.
Adelphi advances to the championship game for the second straight season which they will host at the Center for Recreation and Sports at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon against the winner of the game between SW #2 New Haven and #4 SW American International College, which was rescheduled for Friday due to the inclement weather that hit the northeast on Thursday. The game will be telecast live on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app.
Kelly Mannix, named player of the game, totaled a team-high 14 points to go along with eight rebounds for the Panthers (27-3).
Anh-Dao Tran and
Calli Balfour each totaled 11 while
Sierra Clark came off the bench to chip in nine points, five rebounds and two blocks. Kara Charette put in a game-high 21 points behind 7-15 shooting for Franklin Pierce (18-10).
A heads up play from Mannix and a steal-layup combo from Balfour resulted in four quick Adelphi points to put the home team ahead 4-0 in the opening two minutes. While neither team could get much going offensively early, a 7-2 Adelphi run was capped by a Balfour trey, the Brown and Gold's first of the evening, to extend the lead to 13-6 with 11:29 remaining. Six straight points for the Ravens brought them to within one, and they continued to battle until a Jemma Thacker three brought the Ravens even for the first time, 17-17.
Off the bench,
Tara Flynn responded with a three of her own, her first points of a five-point half, to restore Adelphi's lead at 20-17. However, the visitors continued to press and Kate McDonald drained a three from the left side to give Franklin Pierce its first lead, 22-20 with 5:20 to play.
A 5-0 spurt from a 24-24 tie put the Panthers back on top, and with 33 seconds left in the half, Mannix drained a three off of a dish from Tran to give her a half-high 11 points and put Adelphi in the locker room with a 33-28 lead.
Tran and
Samantha Brenner picked up quick buckets to open the second half, forcing Franklin Pierce to use a timeout just over a minute into the action. A 7-0 Ravens run, capped by another three from McDonald, made it a one-possession game, before an
Ashley Gomez layup and a Clark jumper momentarily stemmed the visitors' momentum.
Another 8-4 run by the Ravens, over a stretch where Adelphi committed three fouls, again brought the Ravens to within two and forced Adelphi to talk things over during a timeout. After being fouled, Balfour converted on both her free throws to kick off a 9-0 Adelphi run which brought the Brown and Gold ahead, 54-43, and forced Franklin Pierce to use another timeout.
Again, however, the Ravens fought back and six points off the hand of Charette pulled the deficit to five with exactly 5:00 remaining on the clock. However, a clutch series of minutes on offense from the Panthers, kicked off by threes on consecutive possessions from Mannix and Tran, saw them outscore the visitors 10-3 over nearly four minutes of action to take a 64-52 lead with 1:19 to go. That double-digit advantage stood up as the final seconds ticked down, putting Adelphi in the championship.
