Lady Bears Erase 18 Point Deficit to Upset Albany Pharmacy

BROOKLYN, NY – Trailing 39-25 at halftime and by as many as 18, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team outscored the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 34-18, in the second half en route to a 59-57 Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference victory on Saturday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The win improves St. Joseph's record to 8-11 and extends the Lady Bears' win streak to five, while Albany Pharmacy falls to 11-8 and 4-1 in conference play, suffering their first conference loss in two years.  The Lady Bears also remain undefeated in conference play at 3-0 and if they win their remaining league games on Monday against Yeshiva and Tuesday against Vaughn, the Lady Bears will capture the regular season title.

St. Joseph's was led by junior Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) who had 14 points.  Three other Lady Bears finished in double figures with Megan Moran(Syosset, NY/St. Dominic), Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY/St. Francis Prep) and Kelly McNamee (Glendale, NY/Mary Louis) all chipping in 10 points each.  Senior Joanna Marciniec (Glendale, NY/Baruch) grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.

Albany Pharmacy was led by the sister duo of Kelsey Johnson who had a game-high 24 points and Alyson Johnson who netted 17 points.  

After the squads exchanged baskets in the early moments, Albany Pharmacy pulled away with a 16-3 run over a five minute span to go up 26-13, with Alyson Johnson powering the spurt with eight points.  The Lady Bears seemed to have little answers for the Johnson duo who both measured over 6-feet-tall and possessed an outside threat, connecting on 4-of-7 three-pointers in the half.  The Panthers shot a blistering 53 precent (16-of-30) in the first half and Alyson Johnson's 17 points sent Albany Pharmacy into the lockers up 39-25.

In the second half, St. Joseph's slowly chipped away at that deficit scored seven points unanswered capped by a Marciniec three pointer brought the lead back to single digits, 46-37, for the first time in 15 minutes of play.  The Lady Bears would extend it into a 22-6 run and a Moran layup leveled the game at 50-50 with 8:27 left.  Moran would later sink a jumper giving the Lady Bears their first lead since the early minutes. 

The Lady Bears would hold Albany Pharmacy scoreless for five minutes and extend that advantage to nine, 59-50 with 3:49 to play.  But the Panthers wouldn't go down quietly, with Kelsey Johnson picking up the slack scoring the next seven points to pull the Panthers within a possession, 59-57, with under two minutes remaining.  But that would be all the scoring for either side as the Panthers missed two good looks in the final 30 seconds to tie and the Lady Bears came away with the unlikely victory.

After shooting out the lights in the first half, the Panthers were held to 24 percent shooting (7-of-29) in the second stanza while the Lady Bears shot 42 percent (13-of-31) to close the game.  Despite their large height advantage, Albany Pharmacy held a slim advantage on the boards, 40-36, and St. Joseph's dominated in the paint scoring, 18-8.  

St. Joseph's returns to action at home on Monday for a HVWAC tilt against Yeshiva University at Brooklyn Technical High School at 7:30 p.m.