Lady Bears Conclude Kentucky Trip With Loss to Spalding

LOUISVILLE, KY – The St. Joseph's College women's basketball team concluded their Kentucky road trip with an 82-56 loss to Spalding University on Wednesday night at the Derek Smith Gymnasium, sending the Lady Bears into 2011 with a 4-8 record.

Back-to-back jumpers from Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY/St. Francis Prep) and Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) would give the Lady Bears their only lead of the game, 6-4, early in the opening frame, but Spalding would go on an 11-0 run to take the lead from the Lady Bears and never look back leading by as many as 20 in the first half and by a 41-26 margin at the break.

Spalding continued to extend their lead in the second half building as large as a 30 point advantage.  The Lady Bears found a spark halfway through the period scoring 18 points in a five minute span, after managing just 31 points over the first 29 minutes, to trail 69-49, but that would be the closest the Lady Bears would come.

The long road trip and a difficult loss to St. Mary-of-the-Woods yesterday may have affected the Lady Bears as St. Joseph's appeared flat against the more physical Spalding team and it was reflected in their lackluster shooting performance, connecting at only a 30 percent rate for the game. They also struggled on the glass allowing a 69-32 rebound discrepancy, with 34 coming on Spalding's offensive end that accounted for a quarter of the Golden Eagles' points. The last time St. Joseph's faced that large of a rebound disadvantage was against Whitter in last year's California trip, by the same exact margin.

McQuillan led St. Joseph's with 18 points going a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and swiping a game-high four steals. Joanna Marciniec (Glendale, NY/Baruch) added nine points and pulled down nine rebounds. McNamee turned in a strong performance in a reserve role, chipping in eight points with three steals and two assists.

Kelly Harrod paced Spalding (3-5) and all scorers with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Beth Jamison pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds.

St. Joseph's will open the new calendar hoping to snap a five game skid hosting New Jersey City University in a non-conference tilt on Tuesday, January 4th, 2010 at Brooklyn Technical High School starting at 7:30 p.m. Fans can watch the action on the live webcast on www.sjcbears.com.