Bears Advance to HVMAC Championship, Cannot Upset Hot Shooting Berkeley

NEW ROCHELLE, NY – For the fifth time in the last six years, the St. Joseph's College men's basketball team met archrivals Berkeley College in the HVMAC Championship and for the first time the Bears entered as underdogs carrying the #3 seed and were unable to upset the top seeded Knights who shot a blistering 63 percent en route to a 91-62 victory for their fourth title.

St. Joseph's advanced to the championship by virtue of a 91-81 victory over #2 Vaughn on Saturday in a rematch of last year's title game. Despite never having lost to Vaughn in four meetings all-time, this victory wouldn't come so easy. St. Joseph's led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but a 25-7 Vaughn run gave the Warriors an eight point advantage with 11 minutes left to play.

St. Joseph's clawed back into the game and equalized the game at 56-56. With the score tied 61-61, the Bears scored the final 12 points of the contest, seven coming from freshman Johnny Mendez (Astoria, NY/St. John's Prep), and held the Warriors scoreless for the final 5:28 to take the 73-61 victory.

Five Bears scored in double-figures led by Mendez' 22 points, who shot 8-for-18 to lead all scorers. Ismael Dabo (Bloomfield, NJ/St. John's Prep) added 13 points, grabbed eight rebounds and swatted away three shots. Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) added 12 points. Vaughn (12-13) was led by Jason Ramos' 17 points and 15 points from Jerome Chan.

In the early goings of the championship, both teams jockeyed back-and-forth and the game looked like it would resemble the regular season matchup, which saw the Knights take a slim 70-69 victory at Brooklyn Technical HS. But Berkeley slowly pulled away from the Bears building as much as an 11 point advantage thanks to 19-of-31 (61.3%) shooting in the period and a 24-15 advantage on the glass. St. Joseph's remained within reach, committing only three turnovers, trailing 42-34 at halftime.

However, the 15 minute break would not cool off Berkeley, who continued to shoot a staggering 64 percent in the second stanza, quickly pushing their lead to double digits where it remained for the remainder of the game. Forced to resort to the long ball to get back into the game, the Bears could not find the range from deep where they struggled all game, connecting on only 3-of-29 (10.3%) attempts, allowing Berkeley to pull away further.

St. Joseph's was paced by Forehand who had 19 points. Mendez had another strong effort adding 13 points to lead the Bears for the tournament. In his final collegiate game, Jon Matzelle (Maspeth, NY/St. Francis Prep) scored 11 points to finish his career with 1,091 points.

Berkeley was led by Tournament MVP Jovan Bovell who came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points. Jose Stable scored 19 points and pulled down a game-high 20 rebounds. Elijah Craig added a 12 point, 14 rebound double-double.

In ceremonies after the game, Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) and Donald Coleman (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth) were named to the 2010-2011 HVMAC All-Conference Team. St. Joseph's finishes their season with an 8-19 record, the first time the Bears have failed to produce double-digit wins under Coach Joseph Cocozello.