McQuillan and Doran Help Lady Bears Claw Past Cardinals

BROOKLYN, NY – Sophomore guard Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY/St. Francis Prep) tallied a season-high 26 points and freshman forward Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) fell one rebound shy of her first career double-double leading the St. Joseph's College women's basketball team to a 81-73 victory over the York College Lady Cardinals on Saturday night at Brooklyn Technical High School. 

After the Lady Cardinals scored the first three points, St. Joseph's utilized their press to go on a 19-2 run to take a convincing 19-5 lead, which they held through the first half of the period.  York then rolled off a 14-2 run, to cut deficit to one point 28-27, with six minutes left.  St. Joseph's maintained their lead through the remainder of the half taking 41-39 advantage into the lockers.

York tied the game on their first possession of the second stanza and neither team could pull away until the Lady Cardinals utilized a 13-2 to gain the lead for the second time, building an eight point advantage with 8:11 remaining.

Foul trouble came into play for York, who dressed only seven players for the game and had three girls with four fouls with 11 minutes left in the game.  This limited their aggressiveness, allowed McQuillan to isolate her defenders and score 18 of her points in the half.  The Lady Bears also went to the line 24 times, converting 18 tries, helping to spark the comeback.

Over the final eight minutes, St. Joseph's outscored York 23-7 taking the lead back for good with the Lady Cardinals unable to stage another rally fouling out three players and finishing with four.

McQuillan recorded her third 20+ point game this season on 9-for-16 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 from the charity stripe.  She also pulled down a season-high tying five rebounds and handed out three assists.  Doran scored 12 points, setting a season best, and pulled down nine rebounds sharing team high honors in that category with Kristin Binckes (Brooklyn, NY/St. Savior).  Freshman Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) added 13 points while swiping five steals and dishing out four assists, both team highs.

York College (8-10, 3-4 CUNYAC) had a balanced attack with three players finishing with 19 points each – Kadisha Wickham, Elizabeth Padilla, and Maimouna Dabo.  Wickham pulled down nine rebounds while Dabo grabbed seven caroms and had four assists and four steals.  Niya Jarvis finished with a 12 point, 10 rebound double-double adding six steals.

St. Joseph's (8-10, 1-0 HVWAC) face another CUNYAC school on Wednesday, January 23, hosting College of Staten Island at 7:30 at Brooklyn Technical High School in a game that was rescheduled from Tuesday, January 22.  The Lady Bears attempt to capture their first win in program history over the Dolphins.