Men's Basketball Rallies Past Maritime to Improve to 2-0

THROGGS NECK, N.Y.—The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team outscored Maritime College 45-29 in the second half to rally from 13 down and took a 67-58 victory on Sunday afternoon at Riesenberg Hall Gym to close out the Maritime College Admiral's Classic with a pair of victories.

The forward tandem of David Louison (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) and Michael Megafu (Jamaica, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) picked up where they left off yesterday afternoon with double-double efforts helping the Bears moving to 2-0 for the first time since 2006.

Megafu scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and added 13 rebounds and four blocks. Louison contributed 15 points, 12 rebounds, and three assists.

Junior Matt O'Neill (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) went 3-for-10 from beyond the arc, finishing with 16 points, five boards, two assists and two steals. Senior Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) pitched in with 12 points, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line, along with four rebounds and three helpers. For the second consecutive day, four different Bears reached double-digit scoring and shot 43.4 percent (23-53) in the contest.

T'Vaughn Gibson led the way for Maritime (0-2) with a team-high 13 points off the bench, going 3-7 from three-point range. Starting forward Isaiah Hayes contributed a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Privateers, whom the Bears will play in a home-and-home starting next season when they join the Skyline Conference, controlled the game early, leading by as many as 13 in the first half and carried a 29-22 lead into the lockers as the Bears struggled to find the range, shooting just 10-for-28 (35.7%) in the half.

The Bears stormed back in the opening minutes of the second half, using a 12-0 run over three minutes to claim a 34-31 lead at the 15:53 mark after a pair of Louison and Megafu layups, Megafu powering the spurt with six points.

St. Joseph's slowly built up their lead, thanks in part to 52 percent (13-25) second-half shooting, going ahead 56-48 with 5:51 left. Maritime would then answer with a furious 10-0 run in a span of just 2:27 to claim a 58-56 advantage on a Gibson trifecta with just 3:24 remaining.

But Megafu would counter with a putback on the opposite end to knot the game at 58-58 and Louison made a layup with 1:30 left to put the Bears up for good as Maddox went 6-for-6 from the stripe in the final minute to help cap an 11-0 run to close out the game and seal the comeback victory.

The defense held the Privateers to just 30.3 percent (20-66) shooting from the field and dominated inside maintaining a 34-20 edge in scoring inside the paint.

St. Joseph's will look to improve to 3-0 for the first time in the Coach Cocozello era opening Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play against Clinton Hill rivals Pratt on Wednesday, November 19 at 8 p.m. headlining a doubleheader with the women. Live stats and video for both contests will be available on SJCBears.com