Lady Bears Slugged By UC Santa Cruz in California Opener

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif – Unable to score a field goal over the first 11 minutes of the game, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team suffered a 77-34 setback to Association of Division III Independents foe University of California Santa Cruz on Friday evening at the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.

UC Santa Cruz (9-3) extends their winning streak to five games, while St. Joseph's (4-6) drops their second straight and three of the last four.

The Banana Slugs smothered the Lady Bears with strong defensive pressure jumping out to an 11-0 lead over the first four minutes and never looked back.  For the contest, Santa Cruz' defense forced 23 Lady Bears turnovers swiping 20 steals, which they converted into 27 points.

A Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) layup at the 8:54 mark of the opening period gave the Lady Bears their first basket, but St. Joseph's was plagued by 3-of-22 shooting (14 percent) in the half and trailed 43-12 at the intermission.

The Lady Bears improved to 40 percent shooting (8-of-20) in the second stanza but still couldn't keep pace with the Banana Slugs who had nearly every player log double digit minutes with frequent substitutions to maintain their pressure until the final buzzer.

St. Joseph's was also hampered without leading scorer and rebounder Samantha Retas (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) who started the game saw only seven minutes of early action, but sat out the remainder of the game with an illness.

Senior Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) and sophomore Taylor Raccuglia (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) led the Lady Bears with seven points each.  Doran and freshman Kristin D'Chiutiis (Brooklyn, NY/Scholars Academy) added five points each, Doran also swatting away three shots. Sophomore Jennifer Miller (Ozone Park, NY/St. John's Prep) saw significant minutes against the taller opposition and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

Junior Ryane Ortiz scored 11 points to pace a balanced Santa Cruz attack that shot 45 percent (30-of-67) and had 12 different players score at least two points. Leah Parrish and Trina Torres each contributed nine points coming off the bench.

The Lady Bears will look to rebound and conclude their west coast swing against Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, December 29. Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m. (eastern) with live video and stats available on SJCBears.com.