Giants hold off late rally to defeat Immaculata in CSAC action Saturday

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Immaculata, Pa.—Keystone College withstood a late rally to defeat Immaculata University, 93-88, in Colonial States Athletic Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Alumnae Hall.

Junior guard JT Bennett led the Giants with 21 points, sophomore guard Jalen Flynn added 14, and sophomore guard Perry Belcher finished with 12 as the Giants improved to 10-12 overall and 8-7 in the CSAC.  Keystone also received 11 points apiece from sophomore guard Austin Smith and junior guard Mark Perry and 10 from freshman guard Jaylen Nuckles.

Immaculata, now 13-10 overall and 9-7 in league play, was led by junior guard Mike Piekarski with 25 points and 13 rebounds and sophomore guard Jordan Ambrose finished with 17 points.

The Giants appeared to have the game well in hand late in the second half when they built up an 89-74 lead with 3:09 remaining, but Immaculata had other plans.  The Mighty Macs scored 12 straight points, including a pair of 3-pointers from Ambrose, to make it a one-possession game, 89-86, with 46 seconds remaining.

Bennett then ended the scoring slump for Keystone, draining two free throws to make it 91-86, but Immaculata's Will Chapman answered with two of his own to once again make it a one-possession game. 

The Giants then turned the ball over, giving the Mighty Macs an opportunity to tie it, but Piekarski's 3-pointer from the left perimeter roll around the rim and fell off, and Nuckles came up with the rebound.  Nuckles then sealed it with two free throws with five seconds remaining to set the final score.

Defensively, Keystone limited the Mighty Macs to less than 31 percent shooting from the field in the second half after Immaculata opened up a six-point halftime lead.  On the offense end, the Giants shot nearly 49 percent from the field in the second half on their way to putting 53 points on the scoreboard after halftime.

With three regular-season games remaining, Keystone is now just one game behind Immaculata for fifth place in the CSAC standings and only a game and a half behind Rosemont for fourth place.   The Giants also own the tiebreaker over Immaculata in the event the two teams tie in the standings since Keystone swept both games from the Mighty Macs this year.

The top six teams in the CSAC advance to the league's post-season tournament, which begins with quarterfinal action on Monday, February 19, and concludes with the championship game on Saturday, February 24.  The top two teams receive byes in the quarterfinals while the third and fourth seeds host the sixth and fifth seeds, respectively.

The Giants will return to action Monday, February 12, to take on Gwynedd Mercy University in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, beginning at 8:00 p.m.