Garden City, N.Y. - After dropping its last two contests, the Adelphi University men's basketball team secured a 77-68 victory over Jefferson University on Sunday, in non-conference action inside the Center for Recreation and Sports.
Adelphi (3-3) capitalized on their opponents poor shooting in the opening half, putting up a sparkling 53 percent mark from the floor compared to the Rams' 37 percent. The home team also managed to knock down five three-pointers while Jefferson (3-3) was cold from beyond the arc, only draining one on 12 attempts. At the break, no player had reached double-digit scoring, although
Matthew Price accounted for nine on three made threes.
By 11:24 on the clock, Adelphi had used an 11-point scoring run to work out to a 17-4 lead, capped with a
Ronnie Silva landing a jumper outside the paint. Jefferson tried to make attempts to cut into the deficit, but the Panthers saw contributions from seven different players that allowed them to extend their lead to at-most 17 before reaching halftime. Over 20 minutes, the home team managed 17 points from players off the bench and 12 courtesy of turnovers to hold a 38-21 advantage when the half expired.
Silva produced 17 of his 23 points in the second half alone, as the hosts put up their largest lead of 19 at 18:32. Every time the Rams needed to get things going, it seems they turned to Erik Timko, who finished with a game-high 32 points on 13-21 shooting from the field.
A 12-2 run in favor of the Rams brought them within two points of Adelphi, with 10:12 left in regulation, but the Panthers used four consecutive three-pointers to return a 12-2 stretch of their own to keep their opponents at bay.
Jake Hlywiak and
Andrew Delaney both knocked down shots from downtown in that stretch, to make sure the lead was not relinquished.
Silva was responsible for a team-best 23 points. Delaney and
Aristotelis Sotiriou were the two other players who reached double-figure scoring, accounting for 15 and 10, respectively while combining for 22 rebounds.
The men's basketball program starts a two-game road trip this week, starting with a Northeast-10 Conference matchup with Southern New Hampshire (Nov. 30), followed by a Dec. 3 meeting at Saint Anselm College.
