Bears Defeat Albany Pharmacy to Complete Sweep on Alumni Night

BROOKLYN, NY – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team cruised to a 62-43 Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference victory over the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the nightcap of the Alumni, Family & Friends Doubleheader on Saturday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

St. Joseph's (10-12, 3-2 HVMAC) had 10 different Bears tally a field goal and contribute to the box score. Senior Justin Gist (Brooklyn, NY/Newsome) led the way with a game-high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.  Freshman David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund's Prep) was the only other player in double figures adding 13 points with seven boards.  Freshman Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) added seven points and David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) chipped in six.  

Albany Pharmacy (5-11, 1-3 HVMAC) was led by Steven Palmer who had eight points, eight rebounds and three assists in a reserve role.  Peter Aiken had eight points and seven rebounds.  Josh Tremblay pulled down a game-high nine rebounds for the Panthers who held a 58-47 advantage on the glass.

The game got off to a slow start with both teams shooting poorly from the outset and St. Joseph's holding an 8-6 advantage seven minutes into the half and both teams unable to score for over five minutes.  But the Bears would finish the final eight minutes outscoring the Panthers, 19-10, and a Louison trifecta before the break pushed the Bears lead to double-digits, 27-16.

St. Joseph's opened the second half on an 11-0 run in the first five minutes and their lead quickly ballooned over 20 points and the game was never in question.  A Maddox three-point play at the 11:49 mark gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game at 29 points, 50-21.

The Bears shot a season-second worst 28 percent (23-of-81) but outshot the Panthers who shot an opponent-worst 26 percent (14-of-53), matching the shooting of Sarah Lawrence one game previous.  The Bears also connected on 6-of-28 (21 percent) from behind the arc.  Albany Pharmacy committed an opponent-high 31 turnovers, which led to 24 Bears points.  

St. Joseph's concludes their HVMAC schedule on Tuesday, February 7th making the short trip down Willoughby Avenue to face Pratt at 7:30 p.m.