Bears Use Sharp Shooting to Outlast Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, NY – Behind a season-best 54 percent shooting, which included a school-record 17 three pointers, the St. Joseph's College men's basketball team earned a hard fought 103-102 victory over the College of Staten Island on Tuesday night. Three Bears finished with 20 plus points, led by Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) who had 24 points with Johnny Mendez (Astoria, NY/St. John's Prep) adding 23 and Jon Matzelle (Maspeth, NY/St. Francis Prep) 21.

The win marks the second victory ever over Staten Island (15-9, 10-3 CUNY), who is top seed in the CUNY Athletic Conference. St. Joseph's other victory came in 2008 at in the first round of the CSI Tournament of Heroes. The win also snaps a four-game skid, giving the Bears much needed momentum heading into the Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference Tournament this weekend.

Both teams exchanged the lead six times throughout the early going with the score remained tied with 9:18 left in the first half, 24-24. St. Joseph's broke away with a 19-4 run sparked by back-to-back-to-back trifectas from Thomas Karasinski (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) and Mendez and carried it into a 51-43 lead at the half. For the opening frame, the Bears shot 56 percent from the field and drained 12 triples. The previous school record for three-pointers in a game was 16.

The Dolphins, who celebrated senior night, cut the deficit to four points early in the second stanza. After a Coach Joseph Cocozello 30 second timeout to regroup, the Bears went on an 18-4 run to build their largest lead of the game 71-53. Mendez played a large part in the run, scoring nine of his 20 second-half points.

St. Joseph's maintained their 18 point lead with 13:37 to play, but the Dolphins responded with a barrage of three pointers of their own and 11 straight points from Thomas Tibbs cut the Bears lead to three, 81-78 with 8:43 to play. But the Bears wouldn't waver, pushing the lead back up to seven on four separate occasions and leading 100-93 with 33 ticks of the clock left.

In the final seconds, Staten Island made one last bid for a comeback sinking three more three pointers, totaling 10 in the half, while the Bears went 3-for-6 from the charity stripe to cling onto a one point advantage with three seconds remaining and Dolphins possession. Staten Island inbounded the ball to midcourt and Bloochy Magliore worked his way for a good look at a long two-pointer for the win, but the ball hit back iron and rattled out giving the Bears the thrilling 103-102 victory.

The Bears 103 points is the fifth 100 point game in school history and the fourth highest all time.

Matzelle pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds and his 21 points were a season-high for his first double-double of the season. Rogowski's fell one rebound shy of a double-double and drained 5-of-8 three pointers en route to his fourth 20 plus game of the season. Mendez's dished out a team-high seven assists along with his career-high 23 points. Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) and Karasinski rounded out the Bears in double-figures contributing 13 and 12 points, respectively.  Adding to the feat, the Bears played without leading scorer Donald Coleman (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth) who did not travel with the team due to a non-athletically sustained ailment.

Staten Island was led by Dale Taranto who had a 24 point, 10 rebound double-double. Jordan Young added 23 points and Tibbs finished with 18 points and a game-high nine assists.

St. Joseph's (7-18, 4-2 HVMAC) begins the post-season in defense of their HVMAC title as the #3 seed in the HVMAC Tournament this weekend. The Bears draw #2 Vaughn College in the semifinal round when play begins on Saturday at the College of New Rochelle. Tip-off is at 4 pm. Should the Bears advance, the championship game will be held on Sunday at 2 pm facing the winner of the #1 Berkeley/#4 Albany Pharmacy semifinal at 2 pm.