Women's Basketball Overcomes Slow Start To Defeat Sagrado Corazon

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—After a poor first-half shooting effort, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team used an 11-1 run early in the second half to take the lead for good and defeat the University of Sacred Heart of Puerto Rico, 49-38, on Thursday afternoon.

The Lady Bears (7-5) wrap up their Puerto Rico trip with a 2-1 mark and secured the program's first two wins outside the 50 states.

Freshman Destiny Marino (Middle Village, N.Y./Christ the King) led all scorers with 13 points, the only Lady Bear in doubsdle figures, also grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists. Senior Samantha Retas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) contributed six points and secured 10 caroms also swatting away three shots. Frontcourt partner Taylor Raccuglia (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) also scored six points with six rebounds three steals and two blocks. Erica Eddy (Glendale, N.Y./Christ the King) chipped in six points and four rebounds as nine different Lady Bears recorded a field goal in the balanced offense.

Debora Toro led Sacred Heart with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting but the hosts otherwise struggled from the field shooting only 24 percent (16-68) for the contest. Katira Rodriguez and Mayra Vargas both added six points each coming off the bench.

Sacred Heart led for most of the opening half employing a pesky full-court trap that disrupted the Lady Bears offense as they shot just 22 percent in the period and committed 14 turnovers. But despite the poor start, St. Joseph's trailed by only two at the break, 21-19, the Lady Bears using a late spurt with Marino scoring five points in the final three minutes to shrink the deficit that grew as large as eight.

Coming out of the lockers, St. Joseph's was able to break the Sacred Heart pressure and found their rhythm, connecting on their first three shots and never trailed again in the contest. The Lady Bears used an 11-1 run over seven minutes to push their advantage to double-digits where it hovered until the final buzzer.

After shooting just 22 percent in the first half, St. Joseph's improved their connect rate to 46 percent (10-22) in the second half while holding the hosts to just 19 percent (6-32) which proved to be the final difference.

The last time the Lady Bears won a game scoring less than 50 points was in December 2008 in a 45-43 victory in a Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference league game against Yeshiva.

St. Joseph's returns home to host The Apprentice School in a key United States Collegiate Athletic Association matchup on Saturday, January 10. In the last USCAA coaches' poll, the Lady Bears were ranked No. 8 with the Lady Builders just behind them at No. 9. The women open up the twinbill with the men at The Hill Center starting at 4 p.m.