Garden City, N.Y. - With the help of a career-high, 28-point performance from Dejavaughn Utley, the Adelphi University men's basketball team raced to a 97-90 decision against non-conference opponent Goldey-Beacom College Wednesday afternoon.
The Panthers (5-2) scored 97 points for the second consecutive contest, led by Utley who was 11-16 from the field - as
Jack Laffey also accounted for 21 behind 4-8 shooting from three-point range.
Nick Cambio and
Oswald Parker III combined for 23 points and pulled down 19 boards together. The Lightning (1-5) were led by Corey Taite, who put up an impressive 36 points, four short of his total from a year ago.
Last season, Goldey-Beacom recorded a 113-111 home victory over Adelphi on December 16, with Taite setting his career-best at 40.
The visitors were held scoreless for nearly five minutes in the opening half, as the Brown and gold rattled off 13 unanswered points to jump out to their largest lead (21) with 11:30 left to play. With a 10-3 run in their favor, the Lightning staged a comeback, but contributions from Utley and Laffey kept their opponents at bay.
Taite knocked down back-to-back free throws to drop the deficit to single digits with under two minutes to play, but
Dwaine Williams was able to respond with two of his own from the charity stripe to push the lead out to 11 as the teams broke for the locker room.
Down 68-54 with 13:49 left in the second, Goldey-Beacom got back into the contest with a 16-8 run over nearly six minutes of action, closing to 76-70. Adelphi was unable to hold back a 9-2 run from the Lightning, only holding a four-point advantage with less than three to play in regulation.
Laffey, who scored 45 points in last year's meeting, continued to torch Goldey-Beacom by making a layup with 2:07 to go, but a halt in the scoring kept it a six-point game as time continued to expire.
Oswald Parker III was left open for a dunk which gave the Panthers an eight-point cushion with 46 seconds left, which all but closed out the contest.
The Panthers return to conference action when they travel to take on Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday, December 1. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past nine seasons, has collected 28 regular season conference titles, 30 tournament championships, 41 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.
For the latest on Adelphi University Athletics, follow the Panthers at www.aupanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.
