Staten Island Too Much for Bears to Handle on Senior Night

Game Program with Senior Reflections

BROOKLYN, NY – The Bears gave the number one team in the region all they could handle in the first half trailing by only three, but the College of Staten Island proved too be to much for the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team, handing them a 76-54 loss at Brooklyn Technical High School in their regular season finale on Tuesday night.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for St. Joseph's (12-13, 4-2 HVMAC), who honored seniors Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) and Justin Gist (Brooklyn, NY/Newsome (Fl.)) in Senior Night ceremonies after the game.  The seniors paced the offense, with Gist netting a team-high 18 points and Forehand tallying 12 points, the only Bears in double figures.  Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) added six points and grabbed a team-high six boards.

Staten Island (21-4, 11-0 CUNYAC), the top team in the Atlantic region, extended their winning streak to 14 games, remaining perfect since the turn of the new year. The Dolphins were led by senior Jordan Young who scored a game-high 28 points on 12-of-21 shooting to go along with seven rebounds.  Senior T.J. Gibbs added 12 points, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and dished out a game-high seven assists to make a run at a triple-double.

A Forehand three-pointer six minutes into the game propelled the Bears out to an 11-4 lead, which would be their largest of the game.  The Dolphins cut the deficit to one on two separate occasions but the Bears were able to stave off the Dolphins and hold the lead for the first 17 minutes of the game.  But Staten Island would finally overcome the Bears with an 8-0 run over a two minute span, Tibbs and Young each contributing four points each, to take their first lead and head into the lockers up, 29-26.

In the second half, after the Bears knotted the score at 32-32, the Dolphins exerted their dominance with a quick 12-0 run.  A David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) layup nearing the midway point of the half trimmed the deficit to five, 46-41, but the Bears would come no closer as the Dolphins scored 11 points unanswered in two minutes and the Bears would not recover.  Staten Island finished the second half on 53 percent shooting (16-of-30) and the Bears could only manage nine field goals in the half and finished the game shooting 32 percent (20-of-62).

The Bears will enter postseason headed to Albany, NY for the Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference Tournament this weekend hosted by the Albany College of Pharmacy.  St. Joseph's finished as the #3 seed and will square off again #2 Vaughn College in the semifinals on Saturday, February 18th, looking to avenge a loss to the Warriors earlier this season at home.  Tip off is scheduled for 3 p.m. and with the winner facing the #1 Berkeley College vs. #4 Albany Pharmacy semifinal taking place at 1 p.m. 

Fans unable to make the trip to Albany can follow the live stats and audio of both the HVMAC and HVWAC tournaments on www.SJCBears.com.