IMMACULATA, Pa. – The Mighty Macs are advancing to the Atlantic East Championship game as the No. 2 Macs defeated No. 3 Cabrini 66-56 on Wednesday evening. As the highest remaining seed, the Macs will now host No. 4 Gwynedd Mercy on Saturday in a winner-take-all contest.
 
The Mighty Macs took the lead in the first 20 seconds on a layup from Kaitlyn Racobaldo and never allowed the Cavaliers the chance to possess the lead themselves. The Macs quickly jumped to a 14-3 lead in the first seven minutes of the first quarter as Theresa Kearney led the Macs on the surge with four points. At the end of the first, the Macs owned an 18-9 lead over the Cavaliers.
 
Quickly regaining their double-digit lead, the Macs scored 13 points in the first six minutes of the second quarter, increasing their lead to 31-14 against the Cavs. The Cavaliers then went neck-and-neck with the Macs for the rest of the half as the score stood 40-24 at halftime.
 
Junior Morgan Falcone was the Macs' standout star in the first half, scoring a team-leading nine points and two steals while also recording four rebounds and three assists. Abigail Lentowski also dropped six points while Tessa Liberatoscioli led the Macs with five rebounds while adding five points. As a team. the Macs shot 17-for-27 (63.0%) from the field while making four of seven three-point attempts.
 
The Cavaliers came out of the gate fast in the third quarter, going on an 11-5 run taking up the first five minutes of the quarter. Then, after two scoreless minutes. Falcone dropped five straight points, giving the Macs a 50-36 lead at the end of the third.
 
Cabrini attempted to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter, narrowing the Macs' lead to 67-49 with 80 seconds on the clock, but they were not able to catch up to the Macs. The Mighty Macs went 9-for-10 (90.0%) from the charity stripe in the final seconds of the game, preventing any comeback as they locked in the victory 66-56.
 
After earning her first career double-double in the Atlantic East Quarterfinals on Monday, Falcone continued to demonstrate her playoff proficiency on the night. She led the Macs with 17 points on the night while adding seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Theresa Kearney also contributed 12 points while leading the Macs with nine steals. Tessa Liberatoscioli, meanwhile, was a defensive powerhouse off the bench, leading the Macs with nine rebounds on the night.
 
As a team, the Mighty Macs shot an impressive 23-for-53 (43.4%) from the field while going 14-for-19 (73.7%) from the charity stripe. The Mighty Macs also executed on turnovers, scoring 16 points on turnovers while stealing the ball nine times on the night.
 
The No. 4 seed Gwynedd Mercy upset the No. 1-seeded Marymount 70-59 on Wednesday evening. As such, the Macs now stand as the highest remaining seed and will host Griffins in the Macs' first appearance in the Atlantic East Championship.
 
The contest will be the Macs' first conference championship appearance since 2015 in the Colonial State Athletic Conference.
 
Game-time for Saturday's Championship match is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. A full preview of the matchup can be found on gomightymacs.com on Thursday.