GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (January 19, 2013) -- The No. 22
nationally ranked Franklin Pierce University men's basketball team
rebounded in the win column on Saturday as the Ravens picked up an
important 67-51 road win at Adelphi at the Recreation Center in
Garden City, N.Y. The Ravens improved to 11-4 overall and 8-3 in
the Northeast-10, while the Panthers dipped to 8-9 and 5-6 in
league play.
The Ravens picked up the win
Saturday just days after they saw their furious second-half rally
come up just short in a 53-50 setback to New Haven. Saturday's win
was important as it was a road win, which is always tough to come
by in the NE-10, and it came against an Adelphi squad which shared
NE-10 regular season championship honors with Franklin Pierce last
season.
Junior forward Adrianos
Vourliotakis Perdikaris (Cholargos, Athens) paced the
Franklin Pierce attack as he logged a double-double with 15 points
and 10 rebounds. He was 6-of-7 from the field and logged a blocked
shot.
Classmate Andre Blackwood
(Paterson, N.J.) came off the bench to net 10 points,
including going 6-of-7 from the free throw line. The Ravens got
other valuable offensive contributions off the bench from juniors
Curtis Christian (Harlem, N.Y.) and Paul
Dick (Belfast, Ireland), as the duo chipped in nine
and eight points, respectively.
Duane Morgan led Adelphi with 11
points, while Anthony Libroia added 10.
Franklin Pierce held a 38-28 lead
heading into the second half, but the advantage quickly disappeared
as the Panthers responded with 11-straight points in the first
five-and-a-half minutes to go up by one. Bradley Simpson converted
five free throws during the surge and Cliff Brown laid in
back-to-back baskets to aid it.
Franklin Pierce made a couple of
substitutions to change things up and it worked as the Ravens
tossed in three-straight three-pointers, including getting bombs
from senior guard Eric Jean-Guillaume (Stamford,
Conn.), Christian and Dick, to take a 47-39 lead with
11:23 remaining in the game.
The consecutive threes changed the
momentum and the Ravens went on the attack. Blackwood dropped in
back-to-back baskets to keep the lead at nine moments later, and
followed with two free throws a couple of possessions later to
extend Franklin Pierce's lead to double-digits at 57-47 with 5:32
left.
Adelphi could not make another run
to get back into the game, thus was forced to foul late, and
Blackwood hit all four of his free throw attempts in the closing
minute, while Jean-Guillaume put in two free-bees to close out the
game.
The Ravens were a solid 14-of-20
from the foul line for a 70-percent clip. They also took care of
business on the boards with a 41-37 rebounding advantage, and they
took care of the basketball, committing just 13 turnovers.
The opening minutes of the game
were tightly contested. Morgan laid in a basket with 5:25 left
until halftime to knot the score at 25-all. John Calarco drained a
triple moments later and the Panthers held a slim 28-27 edge.
Just as they would do in the second
half, the Ravens settled after Adelphi's surge and closed out the
half by scoring the final 11 points to take the 10-point advantage
into intermission. Vourliotakis kick-started the run with a pair of
free throws and capped it with a layup, while Dick added five
points on a layup and three-point play on back-to-back
possessions.
Franklin Pierce returns to action
Wednesday when the Ravens travel to Worcester, Mass. to face No. 23
Assumption at 7:30 p.m.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce men's basketball, please visit the team's page at
athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further,
please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube
(www.youtube.com/FranklinPierce), Twitter
(www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook
(www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase
men's basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department's
online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)
