La Plume, PA – Keystone College led by as many as 21 points in the second half and fended off a late comeback bid by Immaculata University on Saturday afternoon to earn a crucial, 75-70 victory in Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball action.  The Giants improve to 14-9 on the season and 8-6 in conference play heading into their final two games of regular season with a playoff berth within reach.  The Mighty Macs, who have already clinched a CSAC playoff bid, fall to 16-7 overall and 11-3 in the league.    
 
Keystone jumped out to a 15-3 lead over the first five and a half minutes of Saturday's afternoon and extended their advantage to 20-6 at the 12:23 mark when Ashley Evans (Wooster, OH/Wooster) scored on a layup.  Immaculata crept to within 11 points at the 5:50 mark before the Giants used a 12-3 run to build a 39-20 advantage with 3:33 left on the clock before taking a 43-25 lead into the locker room at halftime. 
 
Chantel Blake (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) led Keystone with 13 points in the first half while Evans netted seven points.  Chelsey Hropovich (Seward, PA/Ligonier Valley) and Jazmyn Robinson (Hyattsville, MD/Northwestern) netted six points apiece with Robinson adding five assists and four rebounds in the period for the Giants, who held a 21-18 advantage on the glass in the opening 20 minutes of play.  For the period, the hosts shot a hot, 52.8 percent from the floor while going 1-7 from three-point range and 4-5 from the free throw line.
 
Alison Zimny paced Immaculata with eight points in the first stanza while Brittany Merkle led all players with seven boards.  The Mighty Macs connected on 34.5 percent of their attempts from the field in the opening half while going 0-6 from downtown and 5-8 from the charity stripe.
 
Keystone pushed their lead to 21 points at 52-31 with 16:11 remaining in regulation when Robinson scored on a layup before Immaculata countered with the game's next 10 points to make it an 11-point game with 13:35 remaining.  Keystone quickly pushed their lead back to 17 points on a pair of free throws by Blake with just over 12 minutes left on the clock. 
 
With the Giants leading 70-57 with 5:04 left in regulation, the Mighty Macs used a furious, 13-1 run to cut the host's lead to 71-70 with 22 seconds remaining.  Blake made it a three-point game by connecting on a pair of free throws with 15 seconds remaining and after an Immaculata miss on a potential game-tying three with nine seconds left, Alyssa Cuomo (Odessa, DE/Hodgson Vo-tech) iced the win by hitting a pair of free throws with four ticks left to close out the scoring.
 
Blake finished with 19 points and three steals to lead Keystone while Robinson added a solid all-around performance with 17 points, a team-best nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals.  AAliya Hayes (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) came off the bench to net 12 points while Evans tallied 11 points for the Giants, who connected on 43.9 percent of their field goal attempts for the game while going 2-11 from downtown and 15-20 (75 percent) from the line.
 
Immaculata, who won the first meeting against the Giants, 85-78, on January 23^rd at Immaculata, were led by Zimny's 19 points while Merkle finished with a double-double on 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.  The Mighty Macs finished the afternoon shooting 39.7 percent from the floor while going just 1-13 from three-point land.  The visitors shot a solid, 85.2 percent from the free throw line in the contest.
 
Keystone will host Marywood University on Monday night in a crucial conference matchup scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Gambal Athletic Center in La Plume.