BOX SCORE

Center Valley, Pa. (Jan. 4, 2010) - In an MVP effort, sophomore guard Tad Gillis (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby) threatened to post the first triple-double in over a decade with 20 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in Alvernia University's (9-3) 72-62 win over Carnegie Mellon (4-5) Monday evening in game three of the Casa Mia Holiday Tournament hosted by DeSales University.

Gillis scored five of his game-high 20 during a 20-8 second-half run as the Crusaders pushed a three point lead to 15 with seven minutes to play and held off CMU down the stretch.  Alvernia scored the first four points of the game and never trailed.  In fact, the Crusaders only trailed for a total of 57 seconds in two games, and that was until their first bucket of a 74-68 win over DeSales on Sunday.

Gillis was joined in double figures Monday by Seth Cornell (Millersville, Pa./Penn Manor) who scored 16, and Brian Nerney (Middletown, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) who scored 13 points to go with five assists and one steal.  The three players combined for 119 of a possible 120 minutes with only Nerney taking a 60 second breather.

Alvernia opened up its first double digit lead of the game at 20-10 on a Gillis bucket assisted by Nerney, but CMU answered with 10 straight points to knot the game at 20-all.  The Crusaders came back with 11 of the next 12 and took an 11 point lead into halftime, 36-25.

CMU pieced together an 11-2 run over five-plus minutes early in the second half cutting the Alvernia lead down to 44-41, but Gillis stopped that with a 3-point play to start the 20-8 run that put the game out of reach.

Alvernia will return to the conference schedule Saturday when it visits Lebanon Valley College for a women's and men's doubleheader.

Alvernia 72, Carnegie Mellon 62

All-Tournament Team
Tad Gillis (Alvernia) – Most Valuable Player
Seth Cornell (Alvernia)
Jack Anderson (Carnegie Mellon)
Chris McDevitt (Widener)
Brian Hunter (DeSales)
Darnell Braswell (DeSales)