Lady Bears Extend Streak to 10 With Victory Over New Rochelle in HVWAC Semis

ALBANY, NY – The top-seeded St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team won their 10th straight game defeating the College of New Rochelle, 65-45, on Saturday night at the Albany College of Pharmacy in the Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.

The win sets up a rubber match with #2 Albany College of Pharmacy – who defeated Berkeley College 77-63 – for the title.  The two squads have met in the last two HVWAC championship games, each coming away with a victory.  A win would also match an 11-game winning streak set by the 2003-04 Lady Bears.

St. Josephs (13-11) was led by junior Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) who scored 15 points of 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.  Sophomore Kelly McNamee (Glendale, NY/Mary Louis) added 10 points in a reserve role.  Senior Joanna Marciniec (Glendale, NY/Baruch) added nine points, draining 2-of-6 from three-point-land.  Senior Kristin Binckes (Brooklyn, NY/St. Saviour) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

New Rochelle (7-17) was paced by freshman Alyssa Pechin who led all scorers with 17 points and went 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.  Holly Cammarota added 12 points and Tra'Leassa King pulled down a team-high nine boards with seven points.

The Lady Bears came out flat and the Blue Angels took advantage, jumping out to an 11-3 lead.  But St. Joseph's then held New Rochelle scoreless for nearly eight minutes assembling an 11-0 run to take their first lead of the game.  Both squads exchanged the lead several times before the Lady Bears went on a 9-1 run to build their largest lead of the half, 25-18, and went into the lockers with a five-point cushion, 27-22.

St. Joseph's came out firing out of the lockers, outscoring the Blue Angels 14-4 over the first 3:30 and the lead never dropped below double digits.  After New Rochelle threatened to bring the deficit to single digits, the Lady Bears went on an 11-1 spurt to push the lead to 20 with eight minutes remaining and maintained it until the final buzzer.

The Lady Bears would finish the closing half on 53 percent shooting (17-of-32) and finished with 44 percent for the game (27-of-62).  The defense limited the Blue Angels to 26 percent shooting (15-of-57) and forced 19 turnovers which they parlayed into 24 points.

Tomorrow's championship game is scheduled for 4 pm at the Albany College of Pharmacy following the Bears in the men's championship. Fans can follow the live stats and audio on www.SJCBears.com.