Garden City, N.Y. - With her team needing a victory on Senior Night to guarantee another game inside the Center for Recreation and Sports,
Simone Hobdy paced four players in double figures and led the Adelphi University women's basketball team to a 73-61 victory over the American International College Yellow Jackets in the Panthers regular-season finale on Tuesday night.
With the win, Adelphi (13-15, 9-11 NE10) locked up the fourth seed in the NE10's Southwest Division, and will host Merrimack, the No.5 seed out of the Northeast Division, in a first round playoff game on Friday night in Garden City at 7 p.m.
Hobdy's 15 points paced all Adelphi scorers, while
Emily Miccile added 14 points and
Niajah Morgan added 12 out of the starting lineup.
Jess Camarda added bench depth for Adelphi in scoring with 13 points, while freshman
Maeve MacNeill spelled Hobdy's classmate
Natalie Fekula - who dealt with foul trouble across 26 minutes and totaled two points, four rebounds and three blocks - in the forward spot, with six rebounds and three steals.
The Panthers started off slowly in the first quarter, and found themselves behind 19-10 at the close of the first 10 minutes. However, Adelphi rebounded with a 19-9 scoring outburst in the second quarter to wrestle the lead back, and held a slim 29-28 lead at halftime.
Camarda provided a spark off the Panther bench with five second-quarter points, including a three-pointer which gave Adelphi a 27-24 lead with 3:01 remaining until halftime.
However, the Yellow Jackets would not go quietly as the second half began, and outscored the Panthers 11-5 over the first four-plus minutes of the third quarter to regain the lead at 39-34 with 5:39 left in the period. Facing the deficit, however, a Hobdy three-pointer from the right wing kicked off a staggering 15-0 scoring run for the Brown and Gold which flipped the game on its head.
Camarda capped the scoring burst with another three, and Miccile scored five in the stretch to give Adelphi a 50-39 lead with 1:31 remaining. T
The Panthers never trailed again, and though American Int'l whittled the deficit to as few as four on a Dana Watts layup - the NE10's leading scorer had 23 points in the setback for the Yellow Jackets (12-16, 6-14 NE10) - the visitors were never able to make it less than a two possession game for the duration.
Looking ahead to Friday's playoff game against Merrimack, the Panthers took a 63-60 regular-season decision in North Andover on Jan. 9. The winner of Friday's first-round play-in game will advance to take on the Northeast's top seeds, Stonehill College, in a 3 p.m. quarterfinal on Sunday, Feb. 25.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 26 tournament championships, 33 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.
