Box Score

IMMACULATA, Pa.- The Immaculata men's basketball team bounced back from a tough loss on Monday night to claim their first CSAC victory of the season by a 78-66 score over Cairn (0-6, 0-3 CSAC) on Wednesday night at Alumnae Hall.  The Mighty Macs (3-2, 1-1 CSAC) started the game on 22-4 run and never looked back to even their CSAC record for the season.
 
Junior Jose Ortiz continued the strong start to his Immaculata career with 22 points, while senior Brandon Smith got the eighth double-double of his career and third of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.  As a team, the Mighty Macs shot 29-for-50 (58%) from the field to keep control of the contest throughout.
 
Junior Mamadou Diakite (12 points, 7 rebounds) and sophomore Tyreek Peeples (11 points, 5 assists) also reached double figures, while freshman Matt Simon had a season-high eight to lead bench scorers.
 
After trailing 2-0 early, Immaculata ripped off 14 straight points to get their lead into double digits quickly.  Peeples hit two threes, freshman Roy Ferrell Jr. (6 points) knocked down a triple, while Ortiz and Smith also knocked down lay-ups to propel the run.
 
After a Highlander basket, Ortiz, Smith, and Diakite combined to score the next eight points to give the Mighty Macs an 18-point lead just 7:18 into the game.
 
The lead would remain in double digits until late in the first half when Cairn cut it to eight at 31-23 before closing it to 37-30 at the halftime break.  Tyler Lee (22 points) led the way for Cairn on the night.
 
Ferrell Jr. and Peeples again hit three-pointers out of the locker room in the second half to keep the lead in double digits at 47-35, but Cairn refused to go away behind the three pointer.  They would hit four of them over the next five minutes to trim the IU lead to four at 56-52 with 9:22 to go in the game, but Simon knocked down a triple of his own to extend the lead again.
 
Cairn would never get closer the rest of the way as Immaculata held on for the 12-point conference victory.
 
Immaculata will look to make it two in a row when they travel to Neumann on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
 
NOTES: Immaculata evened their all-time conference record to 70-70 and they now have beaten Cairn all 11 times in school history … Smith became the sixth player in Immaculata history to eclipse the 700-point mark and now has 703 for his career … Smith is also alone in fourth place on the all-time blocks list.