ROSEMONT – There is plenty of basketball to be played this season, but Head Coach Bob Hughes and his Rosemont Ravens (10-8, 8-3 CSAC) who started off their conference schedule with an 0-2 record have won their third straight and eight of their last nine CSAC games to put themselves in first place in the conference standings. Tonight's game was a big contest, featuring two of the three teams tied for the CSAC lead. The visiting Immaculata Mighty Macs (9-9, 7-4 CSAC) lost to the Ravens tonight by an 85-81 final score. Elsewhere, Cabrini defeated Neumann (80-71), the third team that was tied for first place.
Appropriately, the Ravens never trailed in this game on Ravens Rally Night, but that's not to say there weren't some key close moments, especially down the stretch when Immaculata was making a bid to catch the home side.
The teams played very closely for the first 5+ minutes of the game. Tied 9-9, the Ravens outscored the Mighty Macs 11-2 to grasp a 20-11 lead with 11:11 left in the first. Still ahead by nine with 8:06 left in the first half Immaculata chipped away at the Ravens' lead, getting it down to only three points, 31-28 with 4:28 on the clock. Still ahead by three with 1:53 remaining in the half the Ravens responded with a key shot coming out of the hands of rookie Charles Presley, hitting a trey with 49 seconds left to give Rosemont a seven point advantage, 38-31. The first half would end with Rosemont leading 40-33.
The Ravens quickly jacked up their lead to 15 points to start the second half. Marcus Thomas hit a three-ball to put Rosemont ahead 45-33. After an Immaculata timeout, two buckets from Nadir Stukes would give the Ravens a 15-point lead again, 53-38 with 16 minutes left in the contest.
The Ravens would extend their lead to 18 points after a couple of free throws by Kyle Lafferty at 9:03. But the Mighty Macs would not go silently, outscoring Rosemont 10-0 over the next 3:45 to get to within six points, 66-60 with 5:18 on the clock. Two free throws from Marcus Thomas and a layup by Clayton Wolfe would put the Ravens back up by double-digits, and a momentum-building three-pointer from Thomas would give Rosemont a seemingly comfortable 13-point lead, 73-60 with 4:22 left in the game.
Again, Immaculata would quickly draw themselves into Rosemont's danger zone, outscoring the Ravens 14-5 to narrow the lead to only four points, 78-74 with 1:16 left. The teams would trade free throws to keep the distance only four points with less than a minute left. A Kyle Lafferty free throw would put the Ravens back up by five, 81-76 with 0:42 left before Immaculata's Matt Simon would can a trey to get the Mighty Macs to within two points, 83-81 with 1.6 seconds on the clock. Dom Scafidi was fouled in the backcourt and he calmly sank both free throw attempts and the Ravens and their fans went home happy.
The Ravens placed four players in double-figures, led by Marcus Thomas. He shot 5-for-11 and all field goals were outside of the arc. He shot 5-for-6 at the line and scored 20. He also led the Ravens in rebounds with six. Dom Scafidi shot 5-for-6 and 7-for-8 at the line for 18 points. Nadir Stukes shot 6-for-8 from the field and tallied 18 for the evening. Kyle Lafferty also scored in double-digits, tickling the nylon for 14 points.
Immaculata's Rodney Duncan was the high scorer for the Mighty Macs with 20. Matt Simon and Ron Melton each tallied 15 while Mamadou Diakite scored 13.
The Ravens are away for their next two games starting with a CSAC game at Gwynedd Mercy on Saturday, 1/31. Tip-off time at Gwynedd Valley will be at 2:00pm.
