In an omen of things to come, the Eagles missed their first four shots of the game and fell behind 6-0 early before Bobby Black ended the run with a medium range jumper from the right side. The Eagles then put together an 18-4 run that included the only two made three pointers of the half. Despite the productivity of the run, the Eagles were unable to find their shooting touch and the Mighty Macs turned things around and took advantage of poor shooting and a few reckless decisions on the break to score eight straight to tie the game at 18. After a Chris McMonagle lay up on a clever dump-down pass from David Volpe pushed Eastern back in front 20-18, Dan Lepone scored five straight points as the hosts delighted their screaming home crowd with a 9-0 run of their own.
Down seven with eight and a half minutes left in the half, Eastern’s depth began to take a toll as they made up the deficit with baskets off forced turnovers and quick hitters on the break. The Eagle defense held the Mighty Macs without a field goal for the last three and a half minutes of the half, but they were unable to capitalize on open looks at the other end to take the halftime lead and went into the locker room down one.
Different theories abounded for the poor first half shooting, but neither tight rims nor tired legs could explain a 2-13 shooting performance from a team shooting 40% from three point range coming in, but the second half did not get any better. The Eagles hit only two threes in the second half to finish 4-24 on the game. Coach Nadelhoffer said of the shooting, “Some days things just don’t fall. I don’t feel like we took many bad shots, but given the way things were going, we might have done better to try to get closer to the bucket.”
Coming out of the half, Eastern put togehter 18-5 run that was intended to give the Mighty Macs an opportunity to quit, but the hosts refused to go away and came back with furious abandon. The Eagles opening run was highlighted by several baskets off turnovers and two nice three point baskets from Black and David Volpe off DiMaria assists. Up 55-43, the Eagles looked as though they had put away their young hosts, but big baskets from Lamar Williams and Reggie Strickland fueled a 9-0 run that lifted the Mighty Macs to a 64-61 advantage with under five minutes to play. The Eagles, who had scored over a hundred points in their first two games seemed frustrated by the pace of the game and could not get the outside shot to fall. Bobby Black stopped the bleeding with a short jumper.
When Eastern went inside and hit four of six free throws to take a one point advantage with just over a minute left, things looked safe again. Tough driving lay-ups by Strickland and Kyle Finklea sandwiched around a missed shot down at the other end put the Mighty Macs up three with thirty six ticks left on the clock. McMonagle split a pair of free throws with twenty seconds left to cut the Immaculata lead to two, and Sophomore Guard Dan Piotrowski, subbed into the game to try to get a steal or foul, snared a long pass and quickly called a time out. Out of the time out, Eastern got the ball in to Mike Johnson, who also split a pair of foul shots. A lane violation on the miss gave the Mighty Macs an inbound pass under their own basket with 10 seconds left. Johnson stole the inbounds pass as he was falling out of bounds and saved it into the hands of an Immaculata player who was fouled with six seconds remaining.
Regardless of the outcome of the free throws, the Eagles would have a chance to at least tie the game with a quick basket at the other end. After two misses at the foul line, DiMaria and the Eagles had a chance to win the game in regulation. Johnson rose up above two Immaculata players to rip down his fifteenth rebound of the game and fired a pass to Volpe who threw it forward to DiMaria. The junior guard caught the ball on the left wing with four seconds left, crossed over to his right hand and attacked the basket. The buzzer sounded with the ball hanging on the front of the rim, and the lay up trickled in for a 71-70 win.
DiMaria led the Eagles with 18 points and McMonagle pitched in with 13 on 6-8 shooting from the field. Johnson’s work on the boards limited the hosts’ second chance points and helped to start the Eastern break. Strickland and Williams led the Mighty Macs with 17 points apiece.
Coach Nadelhoffer said of the game, “I was very impressed with Immaculata, and they are going to win some games in that gym. We didn’t shoot well at all, but I am very proud of our guys that they found a way to get the win. That represents an important moment in our program. With that kind of crowd and all that the game had going, we still found a way to win. I thought Mike was huge on the boards for us and Lenny, he’s a warrior. I knew if we could get the ball into his hands with a chance to win he was either going to score at get fouled. I am very pleased to be 3-0 going into Lehigh.”
Eastern, at 3-0 for the first time in recent memory, is now off for eight days before traveling to play at Division I Lehigh University on the 29th.