Garden City, N.Y. -- The top seeds out of the Northeast-10 Conference's Southwest Division survived a scare on Sunday afternoon, as the Adelphi University women's basketball team fought back in the fourth quarter after letting a lead slip to defeat a hot-shooting Southern Connecticut State University, 69-52 inside the Center for Recreation and Sport in the NE10 quarterfinal round.

With the win, the Panthers (24-4) advance to host the semifinals of the conference tournament on Thursday, March 2. The Brown and Gold will play host to the Le Moyne College Dolphins, the No. 3 seeds out of the Southwest Division, who upset the No. 2 Northeast seeds, Assumption, in other quarterfinal action on Sunday.

Niajah Morgan was a spark plug off the bench for Adelphi (24-4) in the victory, scoring a career-high 19 points with four makes from behind the three-point line to lead four Panthers in double-figures. In the starting lineup, Julia Gnieser recorded 14 points, her third double-figure game in the past five, and four assists, while Sierra Clark overcame a 3-14 day on the floor with a 7-8 showing at the line for 13 points, while chipping in six boards and five blocks. Rounding out Adelphi's scorers was Calli Balfour, who scored 11 and was her usual stalwart on defense, pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds with six steals.

The Owls (12-17) got 18 points from Maria Wesleyj on 7-14 shooting, and 15 from Abby Hurlbert off the bench as the visiting team knocked down 10 three-pointers in the game.

After Weselyj scored the first bucket of the game, Adelphi never looked back in the opening quarter, ripping off a 17-0 run to take early command of the game. The first seven were scored by Balfour, who gave Adelphi the lead with an old-fashioned three-point play, while Morgan and Gnieser capped the streak with triples from behind the arc. While the Owls responded with the last six points of the period, Adelphi scored the first six of the second to push the lead to 17, a double-figure edge that stood for the duration of the first half, despite SCSU scoring 10 of the last 12 points of the frame. Weselyj scored six for the visitors in the streak, as they knocked down a pair of threes to head into the locker room down 13, 38-25.

The Owls' momentum continued in a big way to start the third period, as Hurlbert put the team on her back and scored the first seven points, forcing Missy Traversi to call timeout. While Sierra Schrader gathered a miss and put back the layup for two out of the break, both teams went quiet from the field for nearly three minutes until Hobdy laid in another two to push Adelphi's lead back to 10. Undaunted, the Owls sank a a trio of three pointers, with Wesleyj sinking two and Hulbert added another to record nine of her 15 points in the period, to cut Adelphi's lead to just one as the game headed to the fourth.

Wesleyj sank her third straight basket from behind the arc to give the Owls' their first lead since 2-0 to open the fourth period, but Morgan responded in kind, sinking her own three-pointer to give Adelphi the lead back at 46-44, and making a second on the next possession to give Adelphi some space. From there, the Panthers hunkered down on defense, allowing just one Owls' basket over the next four-plus minutes in a 12-3 scoring run that saw the Brown and Gold get out of danger, opening up a 14-point cushion as Gnieser made two at the line with 1:08 to play. From there, Adelphi iced the game late at the line, making 8-10 attempts to avoid the upset and advance to the next round.

Tipoff between the Panthers and Dolphins in the conference semifinals in scheduled for 7 pm on Thursday night, as Bentley University hosts Saint Anselm College in the other semifinal in Waltham, Mass.

NOTES
- The Panthers advanced to the conference semifinals for the third time in the past four years.
- Morgan beat her previous career high of 16 points, which was set earlier this year in an OT defeat at Assumption, while setting a new career-high in threes made.

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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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