Jan. 11, 2012

Box Score

Junior G John Calarco scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds as Adelphi University defeated UMass Lowell, 61-53, Wednesday night in a Northeast-10 Conference men’s basketball tilt at the Center for Recreation and Sport.

The loss halted a string of three straight wins for UMass Lowell, which slipped to 9-5 overall and 5-5 in the Conference entering Saturday’s home game against Pace University (4:00).

Adelphi remains on top of the NE-10 with an 11-3 overall clip and an 8-2 showing in the NE-10.

“We played very, very hard defensively but obviously put them to the line an incredible amount of times,” said head coach Greg Herenda. “Offensively we never got into a rhythm and the ball just did not fall for us.”

Sophomore G Akeem Williams (Brockton, Mass.) led UMass Lowell with 14 points while sophomore F Antonio Bivins (Miami, Fla.) came off the bench to score 10 points and grab four rebounds while shooting 5-7 from the field.

Sophomore F Kerry Weldon (New York, N.Y.) grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds in addition to scoring eight points while senior G Dipanjot Singh (Evanston, Ill.) added nine points and four rebounds.

Junior F Bradley Simpson compiled 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Panthers while shooting 4-5 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line. Junior G Chris Ranglin added 11 points and eight rebounds, hitting 11 of 15 free throws.

Neither team shot particularly well – UMass Lowell 18-54 (.333) and Adelphi 13-42 (.310) – but the Panthers had a sizeable advantage at the free throw line where they converted 33-44 attempts while UMass Lowell struggled to a 12-21 clip.

The Panthers also had a 48-28 edge on rebounds, including a 19-10 advantage on the offensive glass, resulting in an 18-6 clip on second chance points. The advantage covered for 21 Adelphi turnovers (15 for UMass Lowell) which resulted in the River Hawks outscoring the Panthers off turnovers 22-10.

UMass Lowell led 50-46 with 5:42 left to play on a pair of free throws by Williams, but Adelphi ended the game with a 15-3 run over which it converted 12 of 15 free throws.

The score was tied 25-25 at the break.