Women's Basketball Begins Colorado Trip With Loss to Northwestern

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team suffered a 70-46 setback to the University of Northwestern (Minn.) in game one of the 2013-14 New Year's Ball at Reid Arena on the campus of Colorado College Tuesday afternoon.

St. Joseph's (7-4) sees their four-game winning streak come to an end and suffer their lone loss in the month of December while Northwestern (7-3) has now won two games in a row for the first time since opening the season 3-0.

Pacing the Lady Bears on the offensive end of the floor was junior Taylor Raccuglia (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) and senior Kelly McNamee (Glendale, N.Y./Mary Louis) who each netted 11 points with Raccuglia also contributing seven rebounds and a block. Junior Kristin D'Chiutiis (Brooklyn, N.Y./Scholars Academy) chipped in eight points and three boards.

The Eagles used a balanced approach on the day with six players finishing with eight or more points led by Tiffany Stubbs who had a game-high 12 points.

St. Joseph's would get on the board first at the 17:34 mark of the first half on a triple by D'Chiutiis to take an early 3-0 lead. Northwestern responded with a pair of baskets to take a 4-3 lead with 16:36 left in the opening half and did not look back as they would remain in the lead for the rest of the game. 

The Lady Bears hang in tough with the Eagles trailing by only five, 33-28, at halftime after Northwestern had built a 30-22 lead with 2:12 left before the intermission. Both teams struggled to find their groove in the first half with St. Joseph's shooting 35.5 percent from the floor while holding the Eagles to a 34.3 percent connect rate. However, both teams used the three-ball to their advantage with each hitting six treys in the half.

The second half saw the cold shooting from the field continue with the Lady Bears shooting only 20.7 percent in the frame while Northwestern hit 33.3 percent of their shots. The Eagles were helped by a 33-21 second half rebounding advantage which included 15 offensive rebounds that led to 13 more shot attempts then St. Joseph's and helped increase their lead to a comfortable margin throughout the second half.

TURNING POINT

After the Lady Bears had cut the Northwestern lead to 37-34 with 15:24 remaining, the Eagles responded with a 13-0 run that put them up 50-34 with 10:34 left to play and would maintain a comfortable cushion for the rest of the game to seal the win. Northwestern ended up outscoring St. Joseph's 37-18 in the second half and would finish the game with 11 made threes.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Other Contributors: Kristen Candelaria (6 pts, 8 reb) Erica Eddy (5 pts, 3 reb)
• St. Joseph's would end up shooting 28.3 percent (17-60) from the floor while Northwestern connected on 33.8 percent (26-77) of their shots including 39.3 percent (11-28) from downtown.
• The Eagles held a sizeable 60-39 margin on the glass including 24 offensive rebounds which they parlayed into a 24-7 advantage in second chance points.
• Northwestern's bench outscored St. Joseph's bench 41-11 and the Eagles also held a 17-9 edge in points off turnovers.
• The Lady Bears went 6-for-15 (40 percent) from beyond the arc in the first half before going 0-for-6 in the second half.

THE BEAR FACTS

• Northwestern takes a 1-0 lead in the all-time series with today's matchup being the first between the two schools.
• The 28.3 percent field goal percentage was the Lady Bears lowest since they shot 20.4 percent in their season opener against NYU.
• The 11 threes made by the Eagles were the most surrendered by St. Joseph's this season.

NEXT UP FOR THE LADY BEARS

The Lady Bears return to action tomorrow for game two of the New Year's Ball facing Wisconsin-Stout at 3 p.m. Eastern.