Lady Bears Overcome Slow Start To Down City Tech, 72-55

Freshman guard Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY / St. Francis Prep) scored a game-high 23 points and junior Julia Serewko(Queens, NY / Mary Louis) added a 12 point, 13 rebound double-double to lead St. Joseph's to a 72-55 victory over the City Tech Yellow Jackets before a large crowd at Brooklyn Technical High School, the new home for St. Joseph's College Basketball.

The Lady Bears were unable to find their offensive rhythm early adjusting to the new court and playing without leading scorer Allison Kavanagh(Queens, NY / Mary Louis), who is sidelined for two weeks due to a back injury.  St. Joseph's trailed for the majority of the first half after being outshot and outrebounded by City Tech.  Finally after facing their largest deficit of 13 with 3:32 to play, the Lady Bears press forced five Yellow Jacket turnovers to spark a 13-0 run in under two minutes to draw the game even.

After entering the locker room down only 34-32, St. Joseph's took the lead early in the half and never relinquished it.  Three-pointers from Melissa Velez (Queens, NY / Mary Louis), Caitlyn Kakavas (Queens, NY / St. Agnes), Ashley McQuillan and Joanna Marciniec(Brooklyn, NY / Baruch) sparked a 19-4 run that gave the Lady Bears a 16 point lead with 11:43 left to play.  The Yellow Jackets also lost their leading scorer from the first half, Tempest Casey, with an apparent knee injury and weren't able bring the Lady Bear lead to single digits.

St. Joseph's capitalized on the sloppy game which saw both teams combining for 64 turnovers, with SJC getting 26 steals on City Tech's 41 turnovers and scoring 50 percent of their points off turnovers.

McQuillan played all 40 minutes and was solid all around adding eight steals, five assists and five rebounds.  Senior Melissa Velez also made a strong contribution netting 13 points with five steals and two rebounds.  Freshman Caitlyn Kakavas gave Coach Carbone some quality minutes with seven points, four steals, two rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes of play coming off the bench.  City Tech had four starters in double digits in the loss, led by Tempestt Casey who scored all 12 in the first half before leaving the game.

The win improves the St. Joseph's record to 2-1 and return to action at home on Tuesday night where they face another local Brooklyn foe, Medgar Evers.  Tip off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.