Fouls plague Men’s Basketball in narrow loss to Mount Aloysius

CRESSON, Pa. --- Carlow University men's basketball lost a narrow 87-82 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference contest to Mount Aloysius College on the road Saturday afternoon.

Foul trouble proved costly for the Celtics (3-18, 2-11 AMCC), allowing the Mounties (7-16, 5-9 AMCC) to score 26 points from the charity stripe on the day. Despite that, the Celtics held a marginal upper hand in almost all the other stat lines and fared better than the first time these two teams met in January and Carlow fell, 75-60.

Jimmy Giannetta (Pittsburgh, Pa./Saint Joseph HS) led the Celtics with a season-high 17 points. Byron Gaskins (Woodbridge, Va./Christ Chapel Academy) added 15 points, and Riley Comforti (Scottdale, Pa./Southmoreland HS) contributed 12 points off the bench. Jordan Cannon (Cleveland, Ohio/Lutheran East/West Virginia Wesleyan) tallied 11 points, three assists and two steals in the effort.

Fans in attendance were treated to eight ties and six lead changes throughout the game.

Carlow took the lead first, jumping out to a 9-2 advantage to start the game. The Mounties tied the score three times before taking their first lead of the game, 16-15, at 11:17.

A three-pointer from Giannetta put Carlow back on top, and Mount Aloysius returned the favor a few minutes later to gain a 23-21 advantage. The Mounties stayed ahead the remainder of the half to take a 42-35 lead into intermission.

The Celtics trailed by three early in the second half before Mount Aloysius strung together a 13-1 run over the span of three-and-a-half minutes to lead, 67-52, with 8:48 left on the clock. An and-one layup by Comforti cut that lead to 12, and a layup in the next possession saw Carlow trailing by 10.

The Celtics did not give up and knitted an 11-2 run that stretched from 3:07 until there was only 31 seconds remaining in regulation, with Carlow now trailing by four.

A free throw put the Mounties ahead five, but a tip-in by Gaskins had Carlow down three with 19 seconds on the clock. Forced to foul to regain possession, Mount Aloysius went 4 for 4 from the line and secured the win in the final seconds of action.

Carlow sank 12 three-pointers and scored 26 points off 21 Mount Aloysius turnovers. The Celtics outscored the Mounties 21-16 off the bench. Mount Aloysius outrebounded Carlow by just one and narrowly outscored the Celtics 42-40 in the paint.

Will Hagwood and De'Von Haggans combined to score 53 of the Mounties' points on the day (31 and 22, respectively), and each recorded 10 points from the foul line alone.

The Celtics travel to Penn State Altoona tomorrow for a 1 p.m. AMCC make up game that was postponed Feb. 12.