Garden City, N.Y. -- For the second straight game, the Adelphi University men's basketball team saw a Northeast-10 Conference contest come down to the wire, but the Panthers' defense came up strong in the final seconds in a thrilling upset of Southern Connecticut State, the top team in the NE10's Southwest Division, on Saturday, 87-86.

Manny Suarez posted a team-high 28 for the Panthers (16-8, 9-7 NE10), including sinking Adelphi's final bucket of the contest with 1:10 remaining which proved to be the difference in the game. Suarez also hauled in nearly half of the team's rebounds, pulling down 15 misses, as Adelphi made up for a -15 differential on the glass (47-32) by shooting over 50 percent from the floor and by making SCSU's mistakes costly, as they more than doubled the Owls' margin in points off turnovers, 26-12. Jack Laffey also posted 20-plus for the Panthers, with 21 overall, while Michael Coffey and Austin Beech shot a combined 14-22 from the field for 19 and 15, respectively. The Owls' (15-8, 11-4 NE10) Michael Mallory, the conference's leading scorer, drained a game-high 31 points, while Isaiah McLeod recorded a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

The two sides were neck-and-neck from the start, foreshadowing what became a dramatic contest late, as neither team could build a lead larger than five points over the first 15 minutes of the contest. In an opening stanza that saw six ties and seven lead changes, Adelphi build some separation late, scoring nine of the last 13 points to lead 52-45 at halftime. Laffey powered Adelphi's hot start, as the Brown and Gold shot nearly 60 percent from the field in the first and had all four in double figures by the break, with four threes and a total of 16 points.

Suarez sank the first four points of the second half to expand the home team's lead to a game-high 11 at 56-45, but the Southwest Division's leaders weren't ready to go quietly, as an 18-8 scoring run shrank the deficit to just a single point, 64-63, as Toby Christensen sank a three with 13:34 remaining. While Adelphi kept the visitors' momentum as bay briefly, a Christensen-authored comeback for the Blue and White continued, as he scored all 10 of the Owls' points in a 10-4 scoring run in just under three minutes to turn a 70-65 Adelphi lead into a 75-74 Owls' edge with 8:40 remaining in the game.

The Panthers quickly responded, as Conor McGuinness was fouled and sank a pair from the line for his only points of the game, before Coffey sank a three on Adelphi's next trip down the floor after a stop to reclaim a four-point, 79-75 lead with just under seven minutes on the clock. A Suarez dunk and a Laffey three extended the scoring run for the Brown and Gold to 10-2, making it an 84-77 game with 4:32 remaining. Mallory proceeded to put his team on his back from there, scoring six straight points for the Owls to whittle the game to a single possession with 1:29 on the clock, and assisting on a McLeod triple with 58 seconds left that brought the Owls within one, 87-86.

Out of an Adelphi timeout, the Panthers were unable to get a clean look at the basket, as Laffey was forced to throw up a desperate three late in the shot clock, and McLeod pulled down the rebound to give the Owls a chance to hand Adelphi its second straight defeat on the final possession. However, out of a timeout and with seven seconds on the clock, the Panthers came up strong on defense as Jerry Luckett, Jr.'s attempt for the game-winning layup hardly hit iron.

The Panthers are back in action on the road on Wednesday night, taking on the Golden Knights at the College of Saint Rose at 7:30 pm.

NOTES
- The Panthers recorded their first win against SCSU in nearly six years, having last beaten the Owls on the road, 85-68, on Feb. 16, 2011.

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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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