GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The University of New Haven men’s basketball team suffered a 54-51 loss to Adelphi University Sunday
afternoon in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship tournament quarterfinals. The Chargers season comes to an end with a 15-13 overall record. The Panthers advance to the semifinals and improved to 19-7 on the season.
Propelled by a pair of Jeremy Williams (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) three-pointers, the Chargers jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first six minutes on Sunday. The Panthers cut the lead to two points and eventually one point, 11-10, at the 8:45 mark. After three missed shots and two turnovers by UNH, Adelphi took its first lead of the half with a Norron McDonald layup with 5:28 left in the first half. Four straight free throws gave New Haven a 15-12 lead at the 4:23 mark. Adelphi answered with a three-pointer to tie the game one minute later. In the final two minutes of the first half, the teams exchanged baskets to tie the game, for the third time of the half, at 17-17. With two seasons left, Chris Ranglin connected on one of two free throws and led 18-17 at halftime. Bost teams struggled shooting in the first half as New Haven went 5-of-25 from the floor and the Panthers just 6-of-24.
Ade Barek (London, England/West Catholic / Saint Petersburg College) put in a layup to open scoring in the second half, while the teams then exchanged the lead three times in the first second minutes of the second half. The score was also tied three times in the first seven minutes as the teams battled for control. New Haven took a 26-23 lead after a Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) three-pointer at the 13:17 mark. Exum improved the Chargers lead to six points with another trifecta one minute later. After the teams exchanged baskets, Adelphi went on a 6-0 to tie the game at 33-33 with 7:50 left. The Panthers rallied with a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to open a four-point, 39-35, lead with just under five minutes to play. New Haven narrowed the lead to 40-39 after an Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) three-pointer with 3:25 left in regulation. The teams again began to exchange baskets, including free throw attempts by Adelphi. New Haven missed a three-point attempt before an Adelphi layup at the 1:36 mark gave the Panthers a five point lead. Adkins answered for the Chargers with a shot from downtown to close the lead back to two points, 46-44, at the 1:22 mark. Each team connected on three-pointer and the score moved to 49-47 with 46-seconds remaining. Adelphi made one of two free throws on its next possession and the Chargers took over down by three points with 34-seconds on the clock. Williams grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on his way to the basket with 24-seconds left. New Haven’s deficit shrunk to just one point after the pair of free throws by Williams. Adelphi connected on another two free throws to hold on to a three point lead after its next possession. New Haven missed a jumper with eight-seconds remaining in order to cut the lead back to one and the Panthers answered with two free throws, taking a five-point, 54-49 lead with just five seconds left. Adkins then went the length of the court in five seconds to cut the final score back to three points.
The difference in Sunday’s game came down to free throws. Adelphi went 21-of-28 at the line off of 22 Charger fouls. New Haven connected on 8-of-11 free throw attempts off 10 Panther fouls. The other facits of the game were played fairly even with the Chargers trailing 32-34 in rebounds and 11-10 in turnovers.
Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) led the Chargers with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) and Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) each added 10 points in the loss.
This season, New Haven made its first postseason appearance since 2007 and won its first postseason game since 2005. The Chargers earned the 10th seed in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship and defeated seventh-seed Pace University in the opening round.
