Adelphi University Athletics

Old Westbury, N.Y. - Trailing by one with eight seconds on the clock, freshman Emily Miccile sunk what proved to be the game-winning layup for the Adelphi University women's basketball team in a season-opening 59-58 victory over cross-island rival LIU Post on the campus on NYIT on Saturday afternoon.

The Brown and Gold (1-0) trailed by six entering the fourth quarter, having never held a lead since 2-0 in the first period, but scored the first nine points, and 11 of the first 13, of the final frame to take a three-point lead with 1:22 on the clock. 

In her first collegiate start, Miccile was Adelphi's high scorer with 14 points, falling short of a double-double with nine rebounds abd three steals. Simone Hobdy opened her senior campaign with a double-double behind 13 points and 12 rebounds. Also scoring in double figures on 4-8 shooting was Niajah Morgan, who totaled 10 points. 

After a Hobdy fastbreak layup at the 8:20 mark in the first quarter, the Pioneers sprinted out on a 15-2 scoring run which accounted for the bulk of their 22-10 lead after the first 10 minutes. The Green and Gold's lead stood for the duration of the first half, as the Panthers cut the deficit to six twice in the second half, before Julia Strachan and Miccile scored the last two buckets of the first half over the final 30 seconds to put Adelphi in the locker room down four, 33-29.

The Pioneers (0-1) held a two-possession lead for much of the third period as well, though Adelphi managed to briefly cut it to just a single point on back-to-back buckets by Katie Murphy and Morgan at the 6:32 mark (36-35). In a high-scoring end to the period, LIU Post went on a 16-11 run to the end of the third, holding a lead of 52-46 on a Mikaya Moore jumper as the horn sounded.

In the final period, the Adelphi defense clamped down, holding the Pioneers off the board for the first 7:45 of the final frame. Adelphi scored the first nine points of the period, a run kick-started with a Fallyn Stephens three-pointer and ended with a Morgan jumper, to lead by three, 55-52 at the four-minute mark. The Pioneers' Kristen Olsen and Shannon Doyle scored six of the next eight points of the game, as Adelphi did not sink a field goal for the next 2:07, to take a 58-57 lead with eight ticks on the clock.

Miccile's go-ahead bucket came off of a Morgan dish out of a timeout, but with five seconds on the clock, the Pioneers got the ball back down the other end with a chance to win the game. Out of a timeout of their own, the Pioneers were the beneficiaries of two missed free throws by Hobdy with three seconds left, but Robyn Francis' game-winning three-point effort fell short at the buzzer.

The Panthers cap their season-opening weekend at the ECC/NE10 Challenge on Sunday, Nov. 12 with a 1 p.m. contest against the host Bears. 

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About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 26 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.

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