Men's Basketball Wins Fourth Consecutive Paced by Double-Doubles from Louison and Megafu

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Winners of four straight and seven of their last eight, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team (16-7) continued their winning ways on Sunday afternoon, putting away the City College of New York (CCNY) 66-55 to remain undefeated at the Hill Center (9-0).

The forward tandem of Michael Megafu (Jamaica, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) and David Louison (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) paced the Bears, controlling the glass all night and scoring more than half of St. Joseph's points.

Megafu posted game highs in points (24) and boards (18) for his twelfth double-double of the season. Louison poured in 19 and pulled down 16 rebounds, securing his sixteenth double-double.

The Bears improved to 8-1 when both bigs record double-doubles.

Junior Matt O'Neill (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) distributed a game-high seven dimes and fellow junior Greg Beehler (Breezy Point, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) chipped in nine points and five boards.

Senior Anthony Lewis carried the load for the Beavers on offense, dropping a team-best 20 on 9-of-19 from the field.

CCNY (6-15) claimed an early 11-8 advantage less than five minutes into play. But St. Joseph's quickly erased the small deficit with 9-0 run culminated by Michael Murray's (Glendale, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) trifecta at the 12:47 mark.

The Bears would not relinquish the lead the rest of the afternoon, but the Beavers would continue to hang around. A pair of free-throws from Alec Willis (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph by the Sea) sent St. Joseph's into the lockers up 38-30.

Megafu's layup with 16:25 on the clock capped an 8-2 run to open the second-half, giving the Bears their largest advantage of the game (46-32).  

But the Beavers continued to pester as sophomore David Solano's jumper with 5:53 remaining closed a 7-0 run for CCNY, shrinking the gap to just seven points (57-50).  

Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) drained a jumper that moved St. Joseph's back up double-digits (61-50), but five unanswered from the Beavers made it a two-possession contest with just 2:54 left.

The Bears, though, would clamp down on defense in crunch time, holding CCNY scoreless in the final 2:54 to seal their fourth in a row.

St. Joseph's struggled to find a consistent rhythm offensively but their suffocating defense held CCNY to just 31.8 percent (21-66) from the floor, keeping their opponent under 40.0 percent for the second consecutive day.

The Bears also dominated the glass, outrebounding CCNY 53-36.

Following two victories in two days, St. Joseph's will be off until Thursday, February 12, meeting No. 1 Berkeley in a pivotal HVIAC meeting on Senior Night. Live stats and video will be available at SJCBears.com.