Bears Basketball Victorious Over Regis in Season Opener

WESTON, Mass. – Four Bears scored in double figures highlighted by double-doubles from David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) and Michael Megafu (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) to lead the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team to a 70-59 road win over Regis College in the opening round of the Regis Tip-Off Tournament on Friday night.

The Bears trailed 5-4 three minutes into the game, but took the lead with a 7-1 run and never looked back building as large as a 15 point lead with under five minutes to go in the half.

The Bears (1-0) face the Purchase College tomorrow for the championship at 3 pm. Host Pride (0-1) faces the Hartwick College in the consolation at 1 pm.

In the first half, the Bears shot an efficient 48 percent (25-52) to take a 36-27 lead into halftime despite committing 12 turnovers.  St. Joseph's defense limited Regis to 39 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from beyond the arc in the first half. 

Regis came out of the lockers strong cutting the St. Joseph's lead to five, 38-33, just two minutes into the second half, but that would be the closest the Pride would come. The Bears responded with seven points unanswered coming from a three-pointer from senior Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) and a pair of Megafu jumpers.

Every time the Pride managed to cut the deficit to single digits, the Bears would extend back to double figures. A Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) steal and layup gave the Bears a 15 point advantage, 56-41, with 6:26 to play.

Back-to-back Ryan Chambers three-pointers for the Pride brought the deficit back down to nine, with just over five minutes remaining, but St. Joseph's converted on 6-of-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch to help preserve the victory.

Regis found their stroke in the second half to finish with 42 percent shooting for the game, but the Bears' 48 percent connect rate was too much for the Pride.

St. Joseph's dominated the boards holding a 41-24 advantage and found 15 points off the bench with six players tallying six or more points to counter a quartet of Regis' players who scored in double figures.

For the Bears, Megafu scored a game-high-tying 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his first career double-double in his collegiate debut. Louison, the reigning Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year, picked up where he left off recording his 11th career double-double tallying 10 points and grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds.

Rogowski finished with 16 points to shared game-high honors with Megafu and brought down four rebounds and dished out three assists. Junior David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) chipped in 10 points, three rebounds and two assists. 

For the Pride, Chambers finished with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from behind the arc. Ahmad Charles and Carlos Bermudez-Glean each tallied 11 points. Ethan Peana contributed 10 points to round out four scoring in double-figures and grabbed a team-high five rebounds.