RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan men’s basketball team scraped together a 74-68 victory over Adelphi on Saturday in an exhibition contest at Draddy Gymnasium. Jaspers’ junior guard George Beamon converted 12-of-13 free-throw and paced all scorers with 24 points in Manhattan’s final tune up before opening the regular-season at home next Saturday with NJIT. Manhattan sophomore Rhamel Brown added a solid performance on both ends of the court finishing with 10 points, 10 blocks and six rebounds over 19 minutes of action.
The Jaspers rebounded from a sluggish start with a 20-2 run midway through the first half to erase an early 11 point deficit. Adelphi junior guard Bradley Simpson led the Panthers out of the gate scoring the first seven points of the contest in the opening 2:42 forcing Manhattan to settle down with a timeout.
Manhattan senior guard Liam McCabe-Moran sparked the Jaspers scoring surge with a 3-pointer at the 15:39 mark. Two minutes later Beamon buried a big 3-pointer to cap his five straight points, and then sophomore guard Michael Alvarado gave Manhattan a lead it would not relinquish at 11:36 with a layup to put the Jaspers ahead 16-15.
Freshman forward Emmy Andujar capped the run with his first field goal of the contest at 9:44 as Manhattan took a seven point edge, its largest advantage of the first half. Beamon led Manhattan with eight points at the break as the Jaspers carried a 34-31 lead into the locker room. McCabe-Moran scored seven points in the opening 20 minutes anchor the Jaspers bench that outscored Adelphi 16-0 in the stanza.
The Jaspers scored eight unanswered points in the beginning of the second half to extend its lead to double-figures on a pair of free-throws from Andujar at 15:59. The 6’5″ local product from the Bronx finished with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists over 33 minutes.
Manhattan even held a 10 point lead (66-56) with under five minutes remaining before a pesky Adelphi squad made one last surge. Panthers’ guard John Calarco converted four free-throws and Simpson sank a pair to bring Adelphi within five points with the ball and under two minutes remaining. But a big defensive stop by Brown who swatted Panthers’ junior guard Cliff Brown’s lay up attempt created a fast break opportunity resulting in a 3-pointer from the corner by Alvarado.
Alvarado scored 10 points and made three steals in 24 minutes as a reserve. The Jaspers went deep playing 12 players and got 27 points of bench production. Roberto Colonette gave Manhattan good minutes off the bench scoring six points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Manhattan held off Adelphi with free-throws in the final minute to secure the victory. The Jaspers’ defensive effort picked up much of the slack on a tough shooting night going just 33.9% (19-56) from the field and 5-for-27 (18.5%) beyond the arc. Manhattan grabbed 31 of its 47 rebounds on the defensive glass.
Panthers’ junior guard Chris Ranglin led four Adelphi players who scored in double figures with 20 points. Senior guard Richard Harkins posted 11 points and Calarco chipped in 10 more.
The Jaspers look to carry its momentum into its season opener on Saturday in Riverdale against the Highlanders at 2 p.m.
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