La Plume, PA – Immaculata University scored the first 13 points of Monday night's Colonial States Athletic Conference men's basketball game at Keystone College and held off a late comeback bid by the Giants on their way to an 80-67 victory.  The Mighty Macs, who led wire-to-wire, improve to 6-9 overall on the season and level their conference record at 4-4 while Keystone slips to 6-8 on the season and 3-4 in league play.
 
Immaculata built a 13-0 lead over the first five and a half minutes of Monday's contest before the Keystone got on the board on a Jesse Longmire (Harlem, NY/John S. Burke Catholic) jumper.  The Giants narrowed their deficit to nine points at 21-12 at the 8:41 mark on a layup by Dan Candemeres (Holbrook, NY/Sachem East), but the Mighty Macs responded with 8-1 burst to claim a 29-13 advantage with 6:46 to play in the first half.  Miles Dargan (Orlando, FL/Wekiva) connected on all three free throws after being fouled on an attempt from beyond the arc to cut the host's deficit to 31-18 with four and half minutes remaining, but Immaculata outscored Keystone 13-7 the rest of the way to hold a 44-25 lead at the break.
 
Jose Ortiz paced the Mighty Macs with 12 first half points while Mamadou Diakite and Brandon Smith pulled down five rebounds apiece for Immaculata, who shot 45.7 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes of play while going 1-9 from three-point range and 11-13 from the free throw line.
 
Longmire came off the bench to lead Keystone with nine points while Candemeres had six points in the opening of play.  Duncan Lunsford (Marietta, GA/Sprayberry) and Darien Wingate (Brooklyn, NY/Christiana) grabbed three boards apiece in the stanza for the Giants, who made just five first half field goals while shooting 18.5 percent from the floor including a 1-10 effort from downtown while going a solid, 14-17 from the stripe.
 
Immaculata stretched their lead to as many as 22 points early in the second half before Keystone slowly chipped away before using a 10-2 run to draw within 10 points at 67-57 on a layup by Candemeres with 5:31 remaining.  After the Mighty Macs extended their advantage to 15 points, the Giants went on a 10-3 spurt to climb to within eight points, 75-67, when Lunsford connected on a trey with 2:07 to play.  That was as close as the Giants would come however as the Mighty Macs scored the final five points of the game while holding the hosts off the scoreboard over the final two minutes.
 
Ortiz finished with 17 points and three assists to lead Immaculata while Diakite added a double-double on 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.  Barry Brockington netted 12 points while smith added 11 points in the win.  Roy Ferrell Jr. added eight rebounds and Rodney Duncan added three helpers for the Mighty Macs, who finished the evening shooting 43.5 percent from the field, 18.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 74.2 percent from the free throw line.  Immaculata also held a commanding advantage on the glass, outrebounding Keystone by a 55-30 margin for the contest.
 
Candemeres led all players with 21 points in the loss for the Giants while Longmire added 16 points and a game-high four assists.  Lunsford tallied 14 points to go along with a team-leading eight rebounds and three steals while Dargan also added three steals on the night.  Keystone ended the night shooting just 29.5 percent from the field including a 24.1 percent effort from three-point land while going 82.8 percent from the charity stripe.   
 
The Giants will next travel to Scranton on Wednesday night to take on Marywood University in a CSAC contest scheduled to tipoff at 8:00 p.m.