Adelphi sneaks past men's basketball
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College men's basketball team fell 70-68 to Adelphi University in a Northeast-10 Conference contest on Saturday, January 14.
AIC drops to 4-14 overall and 2-8 in the NE10.
Jalen Jordan scored the game's first basket, and then the teams traded runs, with Adelphi scoring six straight before AIC answered with eight in a row. A nearly three-minute stretch followed without any scoring, before Andrew Delaney and Kanye Wavezwa traded threes, and then Justice Ellison swiped the ball, leading to a Buka Peikrishvili triple that Wavezwa assisted to give AIC a 16-9 lead just shy of the 11-minute mark.
The deep ball kept being a part of both offenses; Wavezwa and Ellison added another each to push AIC's lead up to 22-12 before Elijah Lewis hit one through contact, and sank the free throw for a pour-point play. He added another two possessions later after an Aguibou Balde layup, but AIC hit three straight field goals to get ahead 30-19; the Panthers used free throws to close the gap down the stretch somewhat, but AIC took a 35-27 lead into halftime.
The first three minutes of the second half saw both teams scoring in the paint before Lewis knocked in another three for Adelphi, but Ellison countered with one, putting AIC up 44-34. The Panthers kept pushing to close the gap, but the Yellow Jackets had answers nearly every time, up until the midpoint of the period when a Dayshaun Walton layup shrank AIC's lead to just 51-50. Still, AIC kept the Panthers down, and an Omarion Jett-Dobbs free throw with just over five to play gave AIC a five-point lead.
Adelphi took the lead for the first time since the early first half after Lewis hit a lay-in through contact, with the free throw pushing Adelphi up 63-62; both teams scored on their next possessions, and Jett-Dobbs set up Balde to hit and get AIC back up with under a minute to play. Lewis responded with two free throws, only to have Jett-Dobbs hit AIC's biggest shot of the night with 16 seconds left. However, the Panthers nailed the last and most important basket, with Walton's right-side three accounting for the difference in the 70-68 Panther victory.
Ellison led AIC with 18 points, while Wavezwa scored 14 and Balde 11; Balde and Peikrishvili each had six rebounds to lead the Yellow Jackets.
AIC next faces The College of Saint Rose on Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Albany, New York.