Garden City, N.Y. – Three players scored in double figures for the Adelphi University women's basketball team on Wednesday night, as the Panthers claimed their eighth straight decision over the visiting Franklin Pierce Ravens, 66-60.
 
For Adelphi (12-2, 7-0 NE10), Sierra Clark came away with a double-double, putting up 20 points and 10 rebounds, her eighth game of the season where she touched 20 points or higher. Behind four three-pointers and a perfect 4-4 at the line, junior point guard Julia Gnieser posted 16 points for a new career-high, while Calli Balfour contributed 10 points in the win. For Franklin Pierce (2-11, 0-8 NE10) a duo of scorers were a point away from contributing 10 points, Jemma Thacker with nine points and eight rebounds, along with Cameryn Wilson totaling nine points with five rebounds.
 
The game started with a 6-0 spurt for Franklin Pierce, with head coach Missy Traversi calling an early timeout, before a Natalie Fekula jumper put the Panthers on the board. From there, Adelphi scored eight straight to wrestle back the lead, and back-to-back Clark efforts gave a 12-9 lead to the Brown and Gold. With 31 seconds left in the first quarter, a Thacker three tied the score, maintaining a close game at 12-12, before Fekula sunk a pair from the line to give the Brown and Gold the lead at the close of the first 10 minutes.

Minutes into the second quarter, a Clark jumper broke the tie, taking a 16-14 lead, but the second quarter would see two ties and three lead changes between the two teams. A Balfour three put the Panthers back on top with 2:33 to play before halftime, before a Clark bucket was the final shot to close the first half with a 26-23 Panther lead.

A 7-3 Adelphi run, capped by another Gnieser trey, saw the Panthers take a seven-point lead to begin the third, before Balfour responded to a pair of Ravens buckets with five straight points of her own. Late in the third, another Gnieser effort from behind the arc made the lead a game-high 12, 46-33 with 1:03 remaining, before an 8-0 run for the visitors across quarters cut the deficit to four, 46-42 to begin the fourth.
 
An 11-4 run for the Panthers down the stretch sealed the contest, as towards the end of regulation the Ravens pushed hard, but not enough to take the upper hand and cut the gap to less than six, as Adelphi took the 66-60 victory.
 
The Panthers return to the road on Saturday, January 7 as they take on Saint Michael's in a conference contest at 1:30 pm.
 
NOTES
- Gnieser's previous career-high was a 15-point effort in a victory over Bentley last season.
- Clark sits in third in the conference for points per game while Balfour is in fifth.
- Clark holds second in the conference for rebounds per game. 

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About Adelphi Athletics:
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past seven seasons, has collected 20 regular season conference titles, 24 tournament championships, 29 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup three times (2013, 2014, and 2016), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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