Immaculata men bounced from CSAC tournament

EAST WHITELAND – It’s an adage that’s invoked quite often: “If you don’t learn from history, you are bound to repeat it.”

In light of the circumstances, it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that, perhaps, the Immaculata men’s basketball squad didn’t learn from an early postseason exit a year ago because they did it again on Saturday, falling to visiting Rosemont, 80-69, in the Colonial States Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

In exactly the same position 12 months ago, IU was ousted at home by Neumann in round one of the CSAC Playoffs, just five days after topping the Knights on its home court. Eerily, the current Mighty Macs season ended similarly, exactly five days after defeating Rosemont at Alumnae Hall.

Sure, just a few IU players actually participated in both games, but you can’t say the same for second year head coach Terrance Stewart and most of his staff.

“It’s on me. I have to do a better job at the top, getting these guys to be more disciplined,” Stewart said.

“Unfortunately, it felt like last year. Same thing: we beat

a team earlier in the week, and they come back into our house still feeling they can beat us. For some reason, we didn’t have enough belief in ourselves.”

Right from the start, the rematch was different than last Monday’s meeting. It was much more intense, and the crowd was much larger and more vocal, and the Ravens were the clear aggressor. Rosemont made a 3-pointer in the opening 16 seconds and never trailed.

“We didn’t play hard enough to get this win,” Stewart acknowledged. “It seemed like at times they just wanted it more than us.

“I thought the game was lost in the first half. We came out and gave up a wide open 3-pointer right off the bat. You can’t give an opponent confidence like that. That’s the wrong message to send.”

These two conference rivals entered the clash with identical league and overall records, but IU was awarded the home game thanks to a point differential tiebreaker. The teams split two regular season meetings, but the Macs had a 141-133 edge in total points. Immaculata’s overall mark for the season falls to 11-15.

Statistically, the first half was just about dead even. But Immaculata trailed 43-35 heading into the break after committing twice as many turnovers, which led to five additional empty possessions.

“We came out in the first half without playing defense and they did whatever they wanted to do,” said junior forward Mamadou Diakite. “We have to play at a consistent level and I think (Saturday) we came out flat and they wanted it more than us.”

The margin remained until a costly technical foul – IU’s second of the game – led to a four-point Rosemont possession. The Ravens went on to score 10 of the next 14, the lead ballooned to 69-52 with 9:06 remaining, and the Macs never fully recovered. Immaculata made a late run, but never got any closer than eight the rest of the way.

“They shot 51 percent, so we didn’t defend well,” Stewart pointed out. “We had too many turnovers. And we are much bigger than (Rosemont). We just out-rebounded them by 26 earlier this week and today it was even.

“It’s right there in the stats. We didn’t play with pride.”

Diakite paced IU with 21 points. Teammates Barry Brockington and Roy Ferrell added 12 and 10 points, respectively, but it was a tough final outing for senior Brandon Smith, who managed just two points and two assists in 22 minutes of action.

Immaculata wound up dropping four of its final five games. The lone exception was on Feb. 17 versus Rosemont.

“We can learn a lot from this,” Diakite said. “It was a winnable game, but we lost and it hurts. This (finish) will be in my head for a long time.”