Bears Conclude Regular Season with Impressive Win over Pratt

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team powered by a career-high 18 points by senior Thomas Karasinski (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) defeated the Pratt Institute, 81-38, in a Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference matchup at the Pratt Athletics Recreation Center on Tuesday night.

The Bears (15-10, 5-1 HVMAC) conclude their regular season having won five games in a row to move a season-high five games over .500. The 15-10 mark is St. Joseph's best regular season finish since 2006-07 when the Bears finished 19-8. Pratt concludes their season 4-9 overall and 1-5 in the HVMAC with their lone conference win coming against Sarah Lawrence.

Karasinski led 10 Bears who scored a field goal going 6-of-11 from beyond the arc in his final regular season game with the six trifectas being a career-high. Junior Ian Duff (Jamaica, NY/Christ the King) scored a career-high 15 points shooting an efficient 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-5 from downtown. Sophomore Chris Labady (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) nearly recorded his first collegiate double-double scoring 10 points going 5-of-8 from the field while securing eight rebounds.

Double-double machine David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) nearly picked up his 14th of the season falling two points shy while corralling 10 boards. Sophomore Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) set a career-high dishing out nine assists while David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) and Matt O'Neill (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) each gave out five assists.

The Cannoneers were led by Ari Grant who recorded a double-double scoring a game-high 20 points while securing ten rebounds. Nicholas Lensander contributed six points and seven rebounds.

St. Joseph's opened the game with a 20-0 run helped in part by four Duff trifectas in the first four minutes to put the game out of reach. Pratt would get on the board at the 14:56 mark of the first half on a James Peterson layup. The Bears would maintain at least a 20-point advantage for the entire half and headed into the locker rooms with their largest lead of the period, 45-16.

With the game well in hand, Coach Cocozello was able to go to his bench with all 12 Bears playing double-digit minutes with the bench contributing 41 points.

St. Joseph's opened the scoring in the second stanza with a Michael Megafu (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth Regional) layup followed by two free throws by the Cannoneers made the score 47-18 with 18:36 remaining. The Bears followed that up with a 30-9 spurt that gave them their largest advantage of the game, 77-27 with 7:32 left to play.

For the game, St. Joseph's shot an efficient 46 percent (31-of-67) and held Pratt to a 26 percent (14-of-53) connect rate. The Bear s were able to turn 19 Cannoneer turnovers into 37 points while Pratt was only able to score five points off 11 St. Joseph's miscues.

The Bears who already locked up the No. 2 seed for the HVMAC Tournament this weekend, return to action against No. 3 Albany Pharmacy in the semifinals on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the College of New Rochelle.