Rogowski, Karasinski Score Highs in Loss to Rivals Berkeley

NEW YORK, NY – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team trailed by as many as 20 to Berkeley College and found themselves down by only three with a minute left, but couldn't overtake their rivals falling 91-82 on Saturday in a rematch of last year's Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference championship.

St. Joseph's (8-10, 1-1 HVMAC) was paced by junior Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) who shot 9-of-19 and 2-of-5 from behind the arc to tally a season-high 23 points.  Junior Thomas Karasinski(Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) came off the bench and provided a spark, draining 5-of-10 three-pointers, all in the second half, en route to a career-high 17 points  Senior Justin Gist (Brooklyn, NY/Newsome) netted 16 points and freshman David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund's Prep) chipped in 13 points, falling one rebound shy of his ninth double-double.

Berkeley (11-6, 3-0 HVMAC) had five Knights with double-digit scoring, led by a pair of double-doubles from Jose Stable (26 pts, 11 reb) and Elijah Craig (18 pts, 14 reb, 4 blk).  The hot-shooting Knights also shot 52 percent (33-of-64) for the contest, the second highest connect rate for an opponent this season.

The Bears got off to a quick start with an early 9-2 lead on a triple and jumper from Rogowski and a pair of layups from Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice).  After a Louison jumper later extended the lead to nine with 11:35 to play, Berkeley went on a 18-9 run to tie the game at 25-25 with 4:17 left.  The Bears also went without a field goal for the final 6:48 of the half allowing the Knights to take a 41-27 lead into the lockers.

Berkeley opened the second half on an 8-2 run to build a 20 point advantage with 17:44 to play, their largest of the game.  With the Knights still leading by 14 nearing the midway point of the half, the Bears went on a 16-4 run over a span of 2:50 to trim the deficit to two, 67-65, bookended by Karasinski's third and fourth trifectas of the half and six points from Rogowski to power the surge.

But the Bears would be unable to equalize the game as the Knights responded with a three-pointer sparking a 14-2 run to push the lead back up to 14 with four minutes left.  St. Joseph's made another run, holding the Knights without a field goal for three minutes and Karasinski's fifth trey capped a 13-2 run that put the Bears within three, 83-80, with a minute to play.  But that would be closest the Bears would get unable to get a shot off for the remainder of the half and the Knights pulling away from the free throw line.

St. Joseph's shot 42 percent (30-of-72) for the contest and surrendered a 48-34 margin on the glass.  The Bears were opportunistic, converting the 19 Knights miscues into 24 points.

St. Joseph's returns home to host Vaughn College in another HVMAC league tilt on Thursday, January 26.  Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. at Brooklyn Technical High School as the tail game of a doubleheader with the women facing the College of New Rochelle at 7:00 p.m.  Fans can follow the live webcast of both games onwww.sjcbears.com.