The Jaspers suffered a brutal loss in the final seconds of Friday night’s exhibition against the Adelphi Panthers, a Division II team.

After building an early lead in the first and much of the second half, the Jaspers struggled late and lost 75-72.

The Jaspers came right out of the gate playing strong defense and found frequent success scoring down low. The team was able to place a seven-point lead between them and the Panthers before opposing guard Lauren Nuss scored nine consecutive, unanswered points to bring her team back into the game.

“I think we just got out-hustled on certain plays, and I think we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and come together as a team,” Jaqui Thompson, Manhattan’s junior guard, said.

At the start of the game, it was hard to imagine the Panthers keeping up with the Japsers, who were firing off of all cylinders. In the second half, though, the team began making sloppy mistakes.

A missed rotation here, a bad box-out there, and Adelphi had come back to tie the game with six minutes left in the contest.

“I think we came out with a lot of energy early, and that started to die down later in the game,” Thompson said, who scored 11 points on Friday night.

Overall, the Jaspers had a high-performing night on the offensive end of the floor with four players scoring in double digits, and junior Shayna Ericksen leading all scorers with 18 points.

“I think my teammates helped me get open,” Ericksen, who shot 80 percent from the field on 10 shots, said. “It’s just about being focused and confident when you shoot.”

The Jaspers have to attribute its loss to the poor defense late in the game, which allowed far too many open looks to Nuss – who scored 12 points on four three-point field goals – and to scorers in the paint.

“Toward the end we lost a little bit of our communication,” Ericksen said, who also blamed defensive lapses for the loss. “It’s definitely an eye-opener and a lesson learned.”

Going into the regular season, the team certainly has some points they know they to work on. However, this game was not a total loss.

The Jaspers showed that they have a lot of scoring ability, especially in its young talents, like freshman guard Nyasha Irizarry, who also scored in double digits against the Panthers and made a tying three in the final minute.

“We can learn a lot from [this game], watch film, watch our offense, watch our defense and make sure we communicate on defense,” Ericksen said.