Marino's Career-High 32 Not Enough As Hunter Flies Past Women's Basketball With Fourth Quarter Spurt

NEW YORK — Sophomore Destiny Marino (Middle Village, N.Y./Christ the King) poured in a career-high 32 points, but Hunter College placed four players in double figures to take a 75-69 decision over the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team on Sunday afternoon.

The Basics

• Final Score: Hunter 75, St. Joseph's 69
• Records: Hunter (3-5, 0-2 CNUYAC), St. Joseph's (1-10, 1-3 Skyline)
• Date: December 13, 2015
• Location: New York, N.Y.
• Arena: Hunter Sportsplex
• Starters:
  • St. Joseph's: Eddy (G), Marino (G), Simon (G), Porcasi (G), Candelaria (F)
  • Hunter: Yu (G), Aponte (G), Patterson (G), Couloute (G), Hudson (F)

Turning Point

• After St. Joseph's cut the deficit to one, early in the fourth quarter, Hunter used a 15-3 run over a five-minute span to put the game out of reach from the Lady Bears.

How it Happened

• St. Joseph's trailed by two at the end of the first quarter and opened a 7-2 run to open the second stanza powered by trifectas from Brittany Cervino and Kellie O'Neill and built an 18-15 lead at the 8:45 mark.
• But the Hawks took the lead back with a 15-4 spurt to create an eight-point separation, the largest of the half, and took a 36-31 lead into the lockers.
• Hunter jumped ahead by as many as nine early in the third, before St. Joseph's rallied with an 11-3 run to shrink the deficit to one and found themselves at a 53-49 disadvantage at the end of the period.
• Marino score the first three points of the fourth quarter to bring the deficit back to one, 53-52, but the Lady Bears managed just four points over the next four minutes and Hunter shot 6-for-9 to move ahead, 68-56, midway through the period and maintained the separation until the final minute until two late Lady Bears trifectas closed the gap.

For the Lady Bears

• Destiny Marino recorded her first 30-plus point game of her career shooting 13-of-25 from the field and 6-of-10 from the free throw line. The sophomore paired the 32-point effort with a game-high-tying 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
• Victoria Porcasi added eight points and Erica Eddy chipped in seven points.

For the Hawks

• Jade Aponte led the Hawks with 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
• Widly Couloute recorded a 16-point, 13-rebound double-double
• Ayanna Hudson also posted and double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
• Ashley Yu added 14 points.

Inside the Box Score

• The Hawks had a slight shooting edge, connecting at a 42 percent rate (27-65) while the Lady Bears shot 41 percent (24-59).  
• Hunter also maintained a 47-36 advantage on the glass but St. Joseph's outscored Hunter 9-7 in second chance scoring.

The Bear Facts

• Hunter moves to 2-1 in the all-time series taking the first meeting since 2005.

Next up for St. Joseph's

The Lady Bears will play their final game of 2015 returning home to host former HVIAC rivals Yeshiva University in their first Skyline Conference meeting on Monday, December 14. The women will headline a doubleheader with the men tipping off at 8:30 p.m. with live stats and video available on SJCBears.com