Bears Ground Raptors in 2012 Home Finale, 75-58

BROOKLYN, NY – Three Bears reached double figures led by sophomore David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) who nearly notched his seventh double-double of the season to help lead the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team to a 75-58 victory in dominating fashion over Bard College on Tuesday evening at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The Bears (6-3) reached a season-high in scoring and finish their four-game homestand 3-1. The Bears also match the program's best nine-game start since the 2006-07 season, a squad that finished 21-11 with a USCAA tournament berth. The Raptors (1-3) scored a season-high 58 points being despite leading scorer Siondueh Burnette not playing, but were unable to snap a two-game skid.

Six different Bears contributed at least seven points to the box score. Louison had game-high honors netting 14 points to go along with nine rebounds. Freshman Michael Megafu (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) registered his fifth double-double of the season dropping in 12 points while securing a game-high 13 caroms.

Also finishing in double figures was junior David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) who poured in 11 points with all of them coming in the first half, connecting on 3-of-6 from beyond the arc while doling out a game-high 3 assists.  Senior Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) chipped in nine points and had two thefts. Sophmore Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) added eight points, making his first start of the season.

Bard was paced by sophomore Jose Canario who came off the bench dropping in 13 points while grabbing five boards. Sophomore Chris McNaughton, the Raptor's second leading scorer on the season, had 10 points to go along with four rebounds.  Senior Frank Stortini contributed six points and a team-high 10 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.

Bard got off to a quick start scoring the game's first bucket 41 seconds into the action. St. Joseph's would follow with an 11-0 run in three-and-a-half minutes to go up 11-2 with 15:50. The Raptors clawed back into the game and regained the lead, 18-17, on a Lamar Powell trey at the 7:45 mark.  But the Rogowski would respond with a triple to put the Bears back on top for good, closing the half on an 18-5 run to build their largest lead of the half, 35-23, heading into the break.

St. Joseph's continued to dominate the play in the second stanza overwhelming Bard with a 52 percent (17-of-33) connect rate in the half and took their largest lead of the game, 63-37 on a Megafu layup with 6:30 left.  The large cushion allowed Coach Cocozello to go to his bench, which closed out the win. Jassiel Ferrer (Brooklyn, NY/NEST+M), John Moore (Glendale, NY/Archbishop Molloy) and Matt Marino (Fort Wayne, IN/Rutherford) all scored their first points of the season as 11 different Bears scored in victory.

The Bears finished the game shooting an efficient 47 percent (30-of-64) from the field and outrebounded the Raptors 41-32.

St. Joseph's returns to the hardwood on Friday, December 7th for the highly anticipated sibling rivalry game against St. Joseph's College (Long Island). The game will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. at the Danzi Athletic Center, the marquee game of the annual "East vs. West" tripleheader that starts with women's swimming at 3:00 p.m. and women's basketball at 5:30 p.m. Live video of both basketball games will be available on SJCBears.com  for those unable to attend the matchup. Join the discussion on Twitter using #BeatPatchogue.