Garden City, N.Y. -- For the second time in program history, the Adelphi University women's basketball team is Northeast-10 Conference champions.

In a match-up of the league's No. 1 seeds, the Panthers, the Southwest Division champions and ranked No. 14 in the country in the latest WBCA Division II Poll, defeated No. 12 Bentley University, the top seed from the Northeast Division, 67-59 to claim the conference's tournament title. Adelphi (26-4), which led for all but 44 seconds of the game, earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament as regional play gets underway at campus sites next weekend. Bentley (26-5) awaits its fate as an almost-assured at-large bid to the regional field, which will air tonight at 10 pm on NCAA.com.

Sierra Clark, named the NE10 Championship's Most Outstanding Player, scored 19 points and recorded her 20th double-double of the season with 10 rebounds along with three blocks. The senior forward averaged 15 points/game in three playoff contests in the tournament along with an average of eight rebounds and three blocks per game.

"I have no words, I'm so happy," Clark said. "We've worked all season for this. We were relying on each other. Everybody was involved from top to bottom, and we all did a great job." 

Joining her on the All-Championship team was Calli Balfour and Niajah Morgan, the latter of whom was Adelphi's second-leading scorer with 17 points (5-10 FG) and five rebounds in the final, and averaged a team-high 18.3 points/game over the three rounds of the conference tournament. Bentley's Jen Gemma, the NE10 Player of the Year and All-Championship selection, recorded a double-double in defeat for the Falcons with a game-high 21 points and 10 boards, while Macchi Smith briefly flirted with a triple-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists. 

Gemma, who scored 12 of her team's 14 points in the opening period, kept Bentley in the contest early as Adelphi's lead never grew to greater than four points over the first 10 minutes. The Brown and Gold scored eight of the last 12 points in the first stanza, turning a 10-8 lead into a 16-12 edge before Gemma drove to the basket for two at the horn, making it a two-point game headed to the second period. The visitors kept building momentum until a Lauren Green three-pointer knotted the game at 21-21 with 8:01 to play until halftime, but the Panthers' defense stepped up from there and kept the Falcons without a field goal for nearly five minutes -- while putting together a 12-2 scoring run of their own to take a 33-23 lead on Clark's three-point play with 3:47 until halftime. Bentley trimmed the lead once more, however, holding the Panthers to just one Morgan bucket until the break, to trail 35-30 as the two teams headed to the locker room.

Adelphi's lead never hit double figures in the second half, as the two clubs went basket-for-basket in what would be expected in a championship matchup of the league's two No. 1 seeds. Twice in the third period, Bentley got within three, but Adelphi responded each time, and back-to-back triples from Julia Gnieser kick-started a 14-8 Adelphi run that restored a nine-point lead, 51-42 with 3:48 left in the third. Again forced to respond, the Falcons scored seven of the last nine, with five from Smith, to make it a four-point game headed to the fourth and set up an exciting finish. 

Victoria Lux drove to the basket for two to begin the fourth, getting Bentley as close as it had been since 21-21 back in the second, but Morgan and Sierra Schrader sank shots from well behind to arc on back-to-back possessions to push the lead back to eight, kicking off a 12-5 run that gave Adelphi breathing space, 65-56 with 3:19 to play, and Adelphi held on the rest of the way to secure the program's second NE10 crown. 

"I had high expectations [for this team], because the talent was there," said head coach Missy Traversi, who led the program to the top of the mountain in her first season at the helm. "I didn't know that we would gel as quickly as we did; we became a family in six months. I was just myself [coming in this season] and I have a lot of energy to give. I gave it, and they received it. They embraced what I had to teach them and...it was just a great collaboration. Defense and rebounds won us a title."

The Panthers, who were ranked No. 2 in the East Region in the last edition of the NCAA East Regional ranking last week, will learn their seeding, opponent and venue in tonight's NCAA selection show. 

NOTES
- Adelphi improves to 2-1 overall in NE10 Championship games, and 10-3 all-time in the league playoffs over the course of five seasons.
- Balfour, Clark, Schrader and Natalie Fekula have been a part of both of Adelphi's NE10 championship teams (2014-15, 2016-17).
- Bentley and Adelphi have won the last seven NE10 crowns, with the Panthers denying the Falcons their 20th league title.
- Joining the representatives from Adelphi and Bentley on the All-Championship team was Candace Andrews of Saint Anselm.

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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 21 regular season conference titles, 25 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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