Monaco's Career-High 25 Points Leads Bears Past Vaughn

CORONA, NY  - Lew Monaco (Staten Island, NY/Msgr. Farrell) drained five three-pointers en route to a career-high 25 points and Jon Matzelle (Maspeth, NY/St. Francis Prep) recorded his second straight double-double to lead the St. Joseph's College men's basketball team to a 78-57 conference win over Vaughn College, snapping their nine-game skid. 

Monaco's four second-half triples broke open a game where the Bears led by only three points.  The last of his 16 second-half points pushed the lead to 20.  The senior guard also swiped four steals matching a season best set by Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) and Justin Gist (Newsome, FL/Newsome) earlier this season.  Monaco's 25 points are the most scored by a Bear since Ervin Maddox tallied 27 in the 2008 HVMAC Championship, where St. Joseph's captured their first title over Berkeley.

Matzelle scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds (10 defensive) for his fourth double-double this season.  The junior forward also had four blocks, matching the mark set twice by Chris Olaskiewicz twice in 2006.

Also for St. Joseph's (2-10, 1-0 HVMAC), the backcourt duo of Forehand and Gist each added 12 points and three rebounds, with Gist also dishing out a game-high six assists.

Vaughn (6-7, 2-1 HVMAC) finished with three scorers in double figures led by Jerome Chan who had 16 points, connecting on four three-pointers.  Levar Smith and Jihad Cesar had 14 points apiece, grabbing eight and six rebounds respectively.  

Both squads remained close early until St. Joseph's broke a 7-7 tie with a 10-0 run to build their largest lead of the half.  Vaughn, who entered the contest atop the conference with a 2-0 HVMAC record, was determined to hang with last year's tournament runners-up, fighting back to take their first and only lead of the game with 3:36 remaining in the half.  A trifecta from Forehand in the final seconds of the half sent St. Joseph's with a 33-28 advantage.

St. Joseph's extended their lead to 11 points midway through the second frame behind a balanced inside-out attack.  Vaughn cut back into the Bears lead, bringing the game to four points with under nine minutes to play, but St. Joseph's held the Warriors to four points for the remainder of the game to pull away for their first victory in nearly two months.

The Bears combined for nine three-pointers for the third time this season and their 52.9% shooting from distance was a season-best.  St. Joseph's held Vaughn to 34.4% shooting, which set an opposition season-low.  St. Joseph's committed only 12 miscues, 10 fewer than Vaughn, and forced 12 steals, setting additional season-bests.  Vaughn held a slight rebounding advantage, 42-39.

St. Joseph's returns to action on Monday, January 18th at home as the tail end of a doubleheader for a USCAA matchup against Southern Maine Community College.   The women tip-off at 1 p.m. with the men to follow at 3 p.m. at Brooklyn Technical High School.