Raccuglia's Career Best Not Enough as Women's Basketball Rally Falls Short at Catholic University of Puerto Rico

PONCE, Puerto Rico—Despite a career- and game-high 24 points from senior Taylor Raccuglia (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team's second-half rally attempt fell short as they dropped the second game of their Puerto Rico trip falling 70-65 to Catholic University on Wednesday evening.

Raccuglia played the full 40 minutes and shot and outstanding 11-for-13 from the field as the Lady Bears matched a season second-best 42.6 percent shooting effort but couldn't recover from a 17-point second half deficit, their late run cutting the deficit to five in the final two-and-a-half minutes.

Freshman Destiny Marino (Queens Village, N.Y./Christ the King) was the only other Lady Bear in double figures with 11 points, six rebounds and five steals. Samantha Simon (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) chipped in nine points as a reserve, the lone bright spot from the free throw line shooting 7-for-8, where the team failed to capitalize on their 31 attempts connecting on 55 percent.

Samantha Retas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and swiped a game- and career-high seven steals also scoring six points.

Catholic shot 39.4 percent from the field and placed three in double-figures led by Mirella Bastidas who had 20 points and five steals and Paola Crespo added a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double. Despite committing 29 turnovers of their own, the hosts made the most of 31 Lady Bear miscues converting them into a 31-16 points off turnover discrepancy.

A jumper by Raccuglia in the early moments gave the Lady Bears their lone lead of the game as Catholic responded with eight unanswered to take the lead for good and carried a 41-29 lead into the lockers.

St. Joseph's came out of the break hot and quickly brought the deficit to single-digits before an quick 8-0 run pushed the lead to it's largest margin, 51-34. But the Lady Bears responded with an 8-0 run of their own and threatened for more, but a close offensive foul call against Retas that saddled her with her fourth foul and also wiped out a chance to cut the lead to eight.

The Lady Bears slowly chipped away at the deficit throughout the second stanza and a big three-point play from Marino brought the lead down to five, 64-59, with 2:24 left but the Lady Bears couldn't close the gap and further despite multiple attempts to bring a one-possession game.

St. Joseph's will wrap up their Puerto Rico trip tomorrow against the University of Sacred Heart of Puerto Rico at 3 p.m. (EST) Live stats and video will be available on SJCBears.com.