Box Score

GWYNEDD VALLEY, Pa.-The Immaculata men's basketball team (10-9, 9-3 CSAC) saw it's five game winning streak come to a halt on Wednesday night at the hands of Gwynedd Mercy (10-9, 9-3 CSAC) by a score of 55-53 in a low scoring defensive battle.  The Griffins scored the final five points of the game to erase a late three point Mighty Mac advantage on their way to a conference victory.  Junior Brandon Smith tallied the fifth double-double of his career in a big 21-point, 11-rebound performance. 
 
Senior Nelson Torres scored 17 points to move into 2^nd place on Immaculata's all-time scoring list as he passed Rob Siter (2008-12) with 1,368 points for his career.  Torres and Smith accounted for 38 of the team's 53 points in the contest.
 
Immaculata held the lead from the seven-minute mark until the final seconds, but never held a lead larger than three points during that stretch.  With 1:42 to go in the game, Smith deposited a lay-up to give the Mighty Macs a 53-50 lead.  Both teams came up empty on the offensive end over the next few possessions until Gwynedd's Justin Knight hit a lay-up with 13 seconds left to narrow the gap to 53-52.
 
Knight then came up with a steal on the next Immaculata possession and converted a lay-up to give the Griffins a 54-53 advantage with six seconds remaining.  He knocked down the free throw as well as he was fouled on the play.  Trailing by two with little time on the clock, senior T.J. Klinger (2 points, 4 rebounds) missed the potential game-winning three-pointer as time ran out.
 
The second half was low-scoring, much like the first half and the lead changed hands six times in a closely contested conference matchup between teams who had yet to see each other this season.  Immaculata trailed coming out of halftime, but were able to get their lead as large as four points at 31-27 early in the second half after a jumper by senior Todd Stokley (5 points).
 
Gwynedd then went on a 13-2 run to jump up to the largest lead of the game at seven points with 13:21 left in the game.  Gwynedd appeared to have the momentum, but Immaculata responded with a 13-5 spurt of their own to take the 46-45 advantage prior to the closely contested final minutes.
 
Immaculata trailed 27-25 at the break after Gwynedd controlled much of the first half.  The Griffins led 7-0 out of the shoot and Immaculata wasn't able to grab their first lead until 5:49 left in the half when the score was 18-17.
 
Gwynedd-Mercy and Immaculata now sit in a tie for 3^rd place in the CSAC standings with six games remaining and a rematch scheduled for Monday night at Alumnae Hall.
 
Immaculata will look to get back to their winning ways when they host conference leader Cabrini on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Alumnae Hall.
 
NOTES: Immaculata is now 6-13 against the Griffins in school history…Immaculata falls to 9-5 when outrebounding opponents…The 9-3 start is tied for the best in school history in the CSAC as the team was 9-3 during the 2009-10 campaign…Smith is now 7^th in school history in free throws made with 126 after passing Jayson Hyman (2006-08)…Smith also moved into 5^th on the free throws attempted list with 220, surpassing Dan Lepone (2005-08)…Torres has the 10^th most assists in a single season in Immaculata history with 51 helpers.