Box Score FREDERICK, Md.- The Immaculata men's basketball team (1-2) earned their first victory of the season on Saturday afternoon at the MMI Tip Off Tournament hosted by Hood College as they defeated Gallaudet, 81-80, in a back-and-forth game that saw the Mighty Macs take control in the final minutes and hold on for the one-point victory.
 
Junior Jordan Ambrose led all Mighty Macs with 20 points while sophomores Asa Kitchen and Brandon McCullough each reached double figures with 15 and 14 points, respectively.  Senior Mike Piekarski was second on the team with 18 points and now needs just 24 points to become the fifth Mighty Mac in program history to reach 1,000 points.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
-The scoring started at a furious pace as Gallaudet took a five point lead early but the Macs grabbed their first advantage of the day at 14-13 just six minutes in
-Gallaudet took the lead back and ran it up to six points at 30-24, but the Macs hit them with a 13-0 run fueled by seven points by Kitchen and six from Ambrose as the Macs led 37-30
-The Macs continued to lead and took a 48-42 edge into the locker room
-Gallaudet started the second half well with a 16-6 run to take a 58-54 lead in less than five minutes
-The Macs clawed their way back to a tie game and re-took at 65-64 the lead on a pair of free throws by Piekarski with 9:43 to go in the game
-IU continued their surge and led 70-64 with seven minutes remaining, but the offense struggled to put Gallaudet away and they came back to take the lead at 71-70 with four minutes remaining
-The teams traded the lead and with Gallaudet leading 73-72 with 3:18 to go, Ambrose tied it 73-73, and after Gallaudet took the lead, Kitchen made a layup with 2:12 remaining on his offensive rebound to tie the game again
-After forcing a stop on the defensive end, Piekarski put the Macs in front for good on a layup, and McCullough delivered the knockout punch with a three pointer with a minute to go as the Macs held on for their first victory of 2018-19
 
TEAM COMPARISON
-The Mighty Macs took advantage of 26 Gallaudet turnovers despite turning it over a season high 18 times themselves
-The Macs won the battle on the boards, 46-39
-Gallaudet was 26-of-55 (47.3%) on field goals and an impressive 12-of-22 (54.5%) from long range while the Mighty Macs were 26-for-70 (37.1%) from the field and 8-for-29 (27.6%) from three point range
-The Macs were 21-of-30 (70%) from the line and Gallaudet was 16-for-25 (64%)
 
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
-Points: Ambrose 20, Piekarski 18, Kitchen 15, McCullough 14
-Rebounds: Kitchen 8, Bailey 7, Piekarski 6, McCullough 6
-Assists: PIekarski 4, Ambrose 2, Lord 2
 
UP NEXT
The Mighty Macs will play their third straight game away from Alumnae Hall at Penn State Abington on Tuesday, November 13^th at 8 p.m.