GWYNEDD VALLEY, Pa.- The Immaculata men's basketball team took to the road on Thursday evening for its first and only contest of its abbreviated 2020-21 season against Gwynedd Mercy. Immaculata battled for much of the contest but Gwynedd Mercy emerged victorious by a final of 87-64.

After trading baskets through the five minutes of play, with the score at 6-5 in favor of the Griffins, Gwynedd Mercy went on a 19-6 run over the next five minutes of play to claim a commanding 25-11 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the opening half. Immaculata and Gwynedd Mercy were relatively evenly matched over the next 10 minutes before halftime as the Griffins tallied 18 points while Immaculata logged 17 of its own, led by six points from Asa Kitchen and five from Tyler Tillery over this 10-minute span. Still, Gwynedd Mercy's surge earlier in the half allowed the Griffins to carry a 43-28 lead into the halftime break.

As a team in the first half, Immaculata just 9-of-37 (24.3 %) from the field while going 0-of-10 from beyond the arc. However, the Mighty Macs were an impressive 10-of-12 (83.3 %) from the charity stripe during the opening 20 minutes. Kitchen led the Macs in the first half scoring a team-high 14 points while newcomer Tim Schultice led the team in rebounding with six of the Macs 26 rebounds through the opening half.

Gywnedd Mercy opened the second half on a 17-4 run, which spanned the first 4:30 of the half to extend its lead to 60-32. Immaculata outscored the Griffins 32-27 over the final 15 minutes of regulation led by eight points from Schultice along with six points each from Tillery, Sage Harkins, and Brandon Perez. Unfortunately, this late comeback effort was not enough overcome a 15-point halftime deficit in an 87-64 setback at the hands of the Griffins.

Overall, Kitchen ended the evening as the Macs leading scorer with 14 points while Tillery added 11 points of his own. Schultice and Perez, who were both making their Mighty Mac debuts, also ended in double figures with 10 points each on the night.

For Gwynedd Mercy, Jordan Perkins turned in a stellar performance as he ended his evening with 30 points to lead five Griffins in double figures.

As a team, Immaculata shot 34.2 % from the field thanks in large part to a 43.6 % shooting performance in the second half of play. Immaculata struggled from beyond the arc in the setback on Thursday, going just 1-of-20 from deep while also going 11-of-18 from the line in the setback. Despite the loss, Immaculata did see its bench outscore the Griffins bench by 25-17 margin over the course of the game.