Waltham, Mass. -- Trailing by double figures at the midway point in the third quarter, the Adelphi University women's basketball team staged a furious comeback to defeat the Bentley University Falcons, 65-59, for a big Northeast-10 Conference victory inside the Dana Center on Wednesday night. Down 10 with 3:23 remaining in the third, the Panthers ran off a 14-5 scoring run to close the deficit to just one, took their first lead of the contest with 8:21 remaining in the game and never looked back from there en route to the upset.

Ashley Gomez led the Brown and Gold (12-5, 5-4 NE-10) in the comeback, scoring 16 points in the ballgame and scoring eight of Adelphi's first 10 points in the fourth quarter to spark the rally. Playing a season-high 34 minutes off the bench, Julia Gnieser played a key role in the win, netting a season-high 15 points, shooting 4-4 from behind the arc and dishing out four assists. Limited to 19 minutes because of foul trouble, Samantha Brenner still put in a 50% shooting performance from the field, going 5-10 for 12 points while pulling down a team-high seven rebounds. Lauren Nuss was the fourth Panther in double figures with 11, all of which came in the second half. Megan Lewis tallied a team-high 14 for Bentley (12-3, 6-3 NE-10).

With Gomez and Sierra Schrader both picking up two fouls in the first quarter, Gnieser and Natalie Fekula were both called upon to play extended minutes for the Brown and Gold. While Gnieser controlled the offense, Fekula chipped in on defense, grabbing five rebounds, blocking two shots and adding one steal in a season-high 20 minutes.

Unable to get much going on the offensive end of the floor early in the contest, the Panthers fell behind 14-2 to a hot-shooting Falcons squad that made five of their first six shots. Gnieser knocked down her first three of the contest to cut the lead to 14-7 but Jen Gemma, the NE-10's leading scorer, knocked down a pair from the line after getting fouled to put her team in front 16-7 to close out the first 10 minutes. Adelphi trimmed the deficit to five points on three occasions in the opening five minutes of the second, but Bentley continued to respond, and a Gemma layup was the final bucket of a low-scoring frame which put the Falcons in the locker room leading by nine, 25-16.

Brenner tallied the first four points of the second quarter for Adelphi, but it seemed the Falcons were going to pull away as three different players scored the next six points to push the lead to double figures, 31-20 with 5:12 to play. From there, a Schrader three-pointer from the left side kicked off a 12-4 scoring run for the Brown and Gold that was capped by a Nuss trey from deep behind the arc and brought the Panthers to within three, 35-32 with 1:46 to play. Out of a timeout, Macchi Smith knocked down a three to restore a semblance of order for the hosts, but Schrader and Gnieser combined for the final five points, the latter knocking down a three with just five ticks on the clock, to bring Adelphi within one, 38-37, as the game entered the fourth. 

With momentum swinging towards the Panthers, Gomez grabbed hold of it and converted on the third offensive rebound of the Panthers' opening possession and the ensuing free throw to give the Brown and Gold their first lead of the contest at 40-38. Playing with three fouls, Gomez wasn't done yet, and knocked down a three after Nuss stole the ball away from Lauren Green on the next possession to force a Bentley timeout with 7:38 to go. Brenner and Gomez combined out of the timeout for two more buckets to extend the opening scoring run to 10-0, which eventually expanded to 15-3 behind another Gnieser trey and a Fekula putback. 

From that point, the hosts embarked on a 12-6 scoring run, which Nuss stymied slightly with two three-pointers from deep, to cut the Adelphi advantage to five, 58-53, with 1:28 remaining. On the ensuing trip up the floor, however, Nuss dished the ball off to Gnieser, and the sophomore knocked down her fourth trey of the night with 1:06 remaining to put the lead at eight. Although Green and Macchi sank a pair of threes with under a minute to play, the Falcons were forced to foul, and Adelphi converted on 4-6 at the line to seal the big comeback, 65-59.

The Brown and Gold return to Garden City on Saturday, January 16 when they host the Penmen of Southern New Hampshire at 1:30 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, 21 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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