Men's Basketball Has Five-Game Winning Streak Halted by Staten Island

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Despite the 13th double-double of the season by junior David Louison (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team was not able to overcome 58.8 percent shooting by the College of Staten Island, falling 95-73 to the Dolphins on Thursday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

St. Joseph's (14-9) sees their season-high five-game winning streak come to an end, while Staten Island (19-2) extends their winning streak to 18 games.

Louison secured his fourth straight double-double with a team-high 21 points and game-high 10 rebounds, shooting an efficient 8-of-16 from the field. Sophomore Michael Megafu (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) fell one rebound shy of his 15th double-double, finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds on 8-of-13 shooting.

Rounding out three Bears who scored in double figures was junior Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) who had 11 points and dished out a team-high six assists. Freshman Anthony Golaszewski (Marlboro, N.J./St. John Vianney) chipped in a career-high eight points on 3-of-6 shooting in five minutes of action.

The Dolphins had three players reach the 20-point plateau led by Will Fonseca who poured in a game-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and secured nine rebounds. Bloochy Magloire netted 23 points and Jon Chadwick-Myers contributed 20 points.

The two teams traded baskets to begin the game with St. Joseph's taking their first lead of the night, 7-6, at the 17:12 mark on a David Ortiz (Brooklyn, N.Y./Christ the King) triple. The action continued to go back-and-forth with the Bears taking their last lead of the game, 27-26, on a Louison jump shot with 7:51 left in the half and it looked like St. Joseph's may be up to the challenge against the streaking Dolphins.

However, Staten Island led by 64.5 percent shooting in the first half would end any hope of a Bears upset, going on a 16-3 run after the Louison bucket to take a double-digit lead, 42-30, with just under two minutes to play in the half as the Bears went four minutes without a field goal. The Dolphins headed into the break with a 48-32 lead after holding St. Joseph's to 38.9 percent shooting in the opening stanza.

The Bears cut the deficit to 13 on a couple of occasions to begin the second half, but Staten Island ended any chances of a comeback with a 15-3 run over two minutes to take a 70-45 lead with 12:09 left to play after St. Joseph's had cut it to 55-42 on a Maddox layup with 15 minutes left to play and the Bears would not threaten again.

TURNING POINT

St. Joseph's took a 27-26 lead with 7:51 left in the first half and looked like they may be able to hang around with Staten Island. The Dolphins had other ideas as they followed with a 16-3 run, helped by a four minute field goal drought by the Bears, to take a 42-30 lead with 1:52 left before half and headed into the lockers up 48-32.

Staten Island coasted the rest of the way, ballooning their lead to as many as 32 points in the second half as St. Joseph's had no answers for the potent Dolphins offense.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Other Contributors: Matt O'Neill (4 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast) Francisco Escobedo (4 pts, 2 reb)
• Staten Island continued their hot shooting in the second half, hitting 54.1 percent (20-of-37) of their attempts to finish the night 40-of-68 from the field.
• St. Joseph's shooting fell to 35.7 percent (15-of-42) in the second half to finish the night at 37.2 percent (29-of-78).
• The Dolphins were able to distance themselves from the Bears with help from the transition game, finishing with an 18-6 edge in fastbreak points.
• Staten Island held a 44-41 edge on the boards but St. Joseph's maintained a 19-10 margin on the offensive glass which they turned into an 18-5 advantage in 2nd chance points.
• The Dolphins were able to overpower the Bears in the paint finishing with a 50-36 edge in points in the paint.
• Staten Island received over half of its points from the bench to hold a 50-17 advantage in bench points.
• Both teams shot an identical 10-of-16 (62.5 percent) from the charity stripe.

THE BEAR FACTS

• The 95 points is the most surrendered by the Bears this season and the 58.8 percent shooting by the Dolphins is the highest allowed by St. Joseph's in a game this season.
• Staten Island improves to 10-2 against the Bears since 2002.
• The Bears fall to 7-2 on the season at Brooklyn Technical High School.
• The eight points by Golaszewski surpasses his previous career-high of five points set against Pratt last week.

NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS – Culinary

St. Joseph's heads upstate to conclude HVIAC play against the Culinary Institute of America on Saturday, February 8th at 1 p.m.