Men’s Basketball Takes Runner-Up in Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament

The Bears Basketball team travelled to Cresson, PA for the Altoona Regional Health System Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament to open the 2008-09 season.  St. Joseph's beat the host Mount Aloysius Mounties on Saturday in the opening round 88-86 and lost to Catholic University of America 43-88 in the championship game on Sunday to capture 2nd Place.

The opening round match was a nail-biter from start to finish in a game that saw 6 ties and 9 lead changes.  Mount Aloysius held the advantage for most of the first half but the Bears kept them within 7 points until drawing even with 5:04 to play in the half and then gaining a slight advantage to take a 50-45 lead in to the locker rooms at halftime.  The Bears first half offense was sparked by the trio of guards, Justin Gist (Brooklyn, NY / Newsome) leading with 14 points, freshman Antoine Forehand (New York, NY / Rice) added 12 points coming off the bench and senior Ervin Maddox(Staten Island, NY / St. Peters) had 6 points.  The second half saw the Mounties open in a 2-3 zone to quickly retake the lead and build a 6 point lead five minutes into the half.    St. Joseph's however battled back with its strong backcourt and interior play of sophomore Jon Matzelle (Queens, NY / St. Francis Prep) who finished with 13 points and freshman Roy Wickstrom(Staten Island, NY / St. Peter's) who had 15 points and a team-high 8 rebounds.  After battling back and forth, the Bears were able to regain the lead with 8 minutes left and held on to it for the remainder of the game.  With 0:14 remaining, Forehand hit two key free throws to extend the lead to 4, which helped seal the win for the Bears.

After hitting a jumper with 12 minutes left in the second half, senior Ervin Maddox scored his 12th point to reach the 1000 point scoring plateau.  Maddox also dished out 12 assists for the double-double and added six rebounds.  In his first collegiate appearance, Forehand scored a team-high 21 points in a reserve role, shooting 7 for 8 from the field.  Gist rounded out the Bears backcourt with 20 points and seven boards.  Mt. Aloysius was led by Daniel Conway (25 points), Joe Balog (21 points) and Brian Collins (16 points, 14 rebounds) in the loss.

In the Championship Game, the Bears found themselves in another close matchup going stride for stride with the Cardinals of Catholic University for most of the first half.  However, after three straight 3-pointers from Sean Stolenthaler, the Bears found themselves going from tied to 9 points down with 4:00 to play forcing Coach Joseph Cocozello to call a timeout.  However that didn't stop the Cardinals momentum as they extended their lead to 18 at the half, 46-28.  In the first half, Catholic shot 54.5 percent from the field including 6 for 12 from behind the arc.  Unfortunately the second half didn't fare much better for SJC as they couldn't chip into the Catholic lead.  Not able to find any offense, Cocozello turned to his entire bench for answers and couldn't find any as the Bears were only able to get 15 points in the half, shooting only 20 percent from the field.

Jon Matzelle led St. Joseph's with 10 points, the only Bear in double figures.  The backcourt trio of Ervin Maddox, Justin Gist and Antoine Forehandeach chipped in 7 points.  Maddox also had a team high 6 rebounds.  Catholic University found four players in double figures led by the sharp shooting of Jason Banzhaf with 18 points going 3 for 3 behind the arc, and Darrell Carroll with 16 points, going 4 for 6 behind the arc.

For their efforts on the weekend, Antoine Forehand and Ervin Maddox were both named to the All-Tournament Team.

The Bears return to action on Wednesday night travelling to Bronxville, NY to face Sarah Lawrence College, starting their campaign to repeat as Hudson Valley Conference Champions.  Tip off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.