Garden City, N.Y. -- Having led for all but 7:35 in the contest, the Adelphi University men's basketball team was unable to hold on late against the visiting Pace University Setters on Wednesday night, as graduate student Christian White sank a three-pointer as time expired lift Pace over the Panthers in a heart-breaker, 77-76.

The Panthers (15-8, 8-7 NE10), who led by eight at the halftime break, were powered by a combined 42 points from Manny Suarez and Austin Beech, who chipped in a team-high 26 and 16 off the bench, respectively, as Suarez tallied a double-double with 10 rebounds. Conor McGuinness scored all 16 of his points in the first half, dishing out eight assists overall, while Michael Coffey added 14 to round out Adelphi's leading scorers. White, who played his undergraduate basketball at Monmouth and Syracuse, paced all scorers with 28 points for the Setters (7-16, 4-11 NE10), as four of the visitors' starters scored in double figures.

The first half was a game of runs, as Adelphi pushed out of the gates early and sprinted out to a 14-3 lead over the first 3:40 as Suarez sank four attempts from the charity stripe and McGuinness sank a pair of threes, with White's first triple of the game accounting for the only Setter points. Undaunted by the early deficit, the Setters shrank the gap to a single possession twice, eventually ripping off a 19-4 scoring run over the next five minutes that saw them take their first lead of the contest and edge ahead, 22-18, on a Vinny Dalessandro make from three-point range with 11:02 remaining in the half.

With the Setter lead as high as six in the first half, the Panthers closed the period strongly, with a McGuinness layup tying the action at 28-28 with 6:56 remaining and a Coffey jumper giving them the lead back, 32-31, with just under three minutes to play. That bucket kicked off an 11-2 half-ending run for the Panthers, in which Coffey got hot and scored nine points total, to give Adelphi a 41-33 lead at the half. 

The second half was another story, as Adelphi's guards were largely shut down by the Setter defense, with Suarez and Beech accounting for 32 of Adelphi's 35 points in the half. The Brown and Gold led by 10 on thee occasions in the first five minutes of the second half, twice on a pair of alley-oop dunks from Suarez and Beech, before the Setters scored 13 of the next 19 points to make it a one-possession deficit, 58-5, with 10:47 remaining. A pair of Suarez layups halted the visitors' momentum slightly, but the Pace comeback continued to gather steam as the two teams traded trips down the floor until another White make from three-point range tied the score at 67-67 with 3:49 remaining.

On the next trip down the floor, Coffey drove to the hoop, sank the layup and was fouled to convert on the old fashioned three-point play which restored Adelphi's lead, and Beech gave the Brown and Gold a lead of that margin twice more in the final three minutes. Nonetheless, the Setters clawed back again, with Ryan Peterson converting on the three-point play down the other end to tie the game for just the second time in the half, 74-74. 

After Suarez was fouled by Pace big man Austin Mofunanya on the ensuing trip down the floor, the junior sank both ends of the one-and-one opportunity to put the Panthers back in front, White brought the ball past mid-court for the Setters to call timeout with just seven ticks on the clock. Out of the timeout, the Setters let six seconds off the clock and got the ball into the hands of White, who sank his sixth and final three-pointer of the game from the right wing to send the visitors home with the stunner.

The Brown and Gold return to action at home this Saturday, Feb. 4 when they host the Southern Connecticut State Owls, the top team in the NE10 Southwest, in a 3:30 pm contest.  

NOTES
- The Panthers are in a race for the final playoff spots in the Southwest Division, currently holding a one game lead over New Haven for the fourth seed. The top five teams in each division advance to the NE10 playoffs.
- Suarez recorded his ninth double-double of the season.

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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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