West Haven, Conn. - Needing to overcome an early 19-point deficit, the Adelphi University men's basketball team concluded its 2023 Northeast-10 Conference schedule with a 74-60 loss to the University of New Haven on Tuesday.
The Chargers (2-7, 1-4 NE10) used 19 straight points to open the contest and never relinquished its staggering lead. Turnovers and stale shooting plagued the Panthers throughout the opening six minutes, until a layup from
Matthew Price went in to break the silence. Adelphi (4-4, 3-2 NE10) brought the score within 11 at one point in the opening half, but a 16-4 run in favor of the home team put them ahead by 24 with 6:10 still left to play in the first.
It was a cold first half of shooting for the visiting team, who only landed seven of its 25 shots from the field as the hosts put up a 15-for-25 performance across all players.
Coming out of halftime, the Panthers need to chip away at the deficit, as a pair of
Jarnel Rancy free throws managed to bring them within 10 of their opponent after five minutes of work. Unfortunately for the Cats, a 13-4 run from the Chargers kept the visitors at bay, despite better shooting in the second half.
Adelphi's numbers in the second improved to 46.4 percent from the field with a 10-for-11 clip at the charity stripe.
Elijah Lewis poured in all 14 of his points in the latter 20 minutes, with a 6-fo-10 performance from the field. Regularly a consistent team from three point range, the Panthers dipped to .185 from beyond the arc as New Haven put up a .364 clip from three-point land. As a team, New Haven closed out the night shooting a season-high 52.9 percent from the field, connecting on 27-of-51 shot attempts.
The Panthers will kick off a three-game homestand to close out the calendar year, starting with a non-conference matchup against Caldwell University on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.