Garden City, N.Y. – After building an 11-point lead at the close of the first quarter, the #16 Adelphi University women's basketball team never looked back en route to a 62-44 win over the Southern Connecticut State Owls at the Center for Recreation and Sport on Saturday afternoon.
 
Sierra Clark recorded her 17^th double-double of the season with a 22-point, 10-rebound effort in the win for the Brown and Gold (20-3, 15-1 NE10), while teammate Calli Balfour also registered a double-double with 11 points and 12 boards to compliment her five steals. The duo led six other Panthers who scored at least two points, as Natalie Fekula chipped in with eight points and five rebounds off the bench while starters Julia Gnieser and Simone Hobdy added six points apiece.
 
In the first quarter, Clark knotted the game at 6-6 with her first of two free throw attempts and then sunk the second to give the Panthers the 7-6 upper-hand, a lead they would not give up for the rest of the game. The Brown and Gold ramped up their offensive output over the last five minutes of the first quarter, putting in a 14-2 run and giving them an 11-point cushion. Despite a sluggish second by both benches in terms of offense, Adelphi still entered halftime with a 25-15 lead.
 
For the Owls, Maria Weselyj accounted for 11 of the team's 15 points in the first half, but Adelphi shut her down in the second, forcing her to miss her three field goals and keeping her scoreless over the second 20 minutes.
 
The duo of Balfour and Clark accounted for all 15 of Adelphi's points in the third quarter and out-scored the Owls by two, as the Panthers powered past the Owls in three of the four quarters in terms of scoring. Fekula's two made free throws to kick off the fourth sparked a 13-2 run which ended with a layup by Sierra Schrader and gave Adelphi their largest advantage of the game at 23 points. The deficit was too much to overcome as SCSU got no closer than 18 points as they were turned away with their 13^th loss of the season.
 
Women's basketball is back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at St. Rose in Albany, N.Y. Tip-off is slated for a 5:30 pm start.

NOTES
- The Panthers return home against the University of New Haven on Feb. 11, as they welcome back former Panthers for Alumni Day. Contact assistant coach Krystal Wells at kwells@adelphi.edu or the women's basketball office phone at 516-877-4246 to register.

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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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