Manchester, N.H. (March 4) -- No. 9 seed Adelphi jumped out to an early 12-0 lead in the opening minutes and defeated No. 5 seed Saint Anselm by a 78-66 final on Thursday in the NE-10 Tournament Semifinals. Adelphi will face No. 7 UMass Lowell in the championship game.

After the early 12-0 Adelphi, the visitors continued their hot shooting and built the lead to 18 at 31-13 with 6:47 left in the opening half. Trailing by a 37-17 margin with 3:10 left, Saint Anselm closed the period on a 7-2 run and trailed 39-24 heading into the break. The Hawks shot just 30 percent from the field in the half and were helped by an 11-for-11 first half from the line by senior Greg Vetrano (Andover, Mass.).

The Panthers maintained a sizable cushion over the first 10 minutes of the second half and held a 61-40 lead with 8:54 remaining. Saint Anselm answered with an 11-2 run though and after a layup from Hakeem Williams (Spring Valley, N.Y.) had cut the lead down to 12 with 3:19 left. Adelphi didn't allow the Hawks to get any closer though as the Panthers advanced to the Northeast-10 Championship in their first year as members of the Northeast-10 Conference.

Vetrano led the Hawks with 25 points, along with 12 points from Williams and 10 points from Thomas Baudinet (Watertown, Conn.). Prior to the game, Vetrano was honored for scoring his 1000th career point in the NE-10 Tournament First Round in a win over Pace.

Richard Byrd led four Panthers in double figures, along with 19 points from Casey Cosgrove. David Akinyooye added a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double and Chris Ranglin posted 11 points.

Saint Anselm falls to 20-10 overall, while Adelphi improves to 22-10 and will travel to UMass Lowell for the Northeast-10 Final on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. Saint Anselm is still hopeful for an NCAA Tournament berth, which will be announced online at www.ncaa.com via an online selection at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 7th, live from Indianapolis.