Lady Bears Clinch HVWAC Regular Season Title With Triumph Over Yeshiva

BROOKLYN, NY – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team extended their winning streak to six games and clinched the Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference regular season title, defeating Yeshiva University, 73-37, on Monday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The last time St. Joseph's (9-11, 4-0 HVWAC) assembled a winning streak of six games was in their 2004-05 campaign where they built a six-game streak on two separate occasions.  The Lady Bears last captured the regular season title in 2010 winning five of their last six regular season games and going on to win the HVWAC tournament title and earned a USCAA Tournament berth.

Ten different Lady Bears contributed to the victory with a field goal.  St. Joseph's was paced by senior Joanna Marciniec (Glendale, NY/Baruch) who netted a career-high-tying and game-high 19 points and fell one rebound shy of a double-double in only 17 minutes of action.  Marciniec shot 8-for-9 from the floor and 3-for-4 from behind the arc and swiped four steals and dished out three assists to fill up the stat line.  Sophomore Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic) tallied a career-high 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting and pulled down five rebounds.

Senior Caitlyn Kakavas (Bayside, NY/St. Agnes) added a season-high nine points and had four assists and three steals.  Senior Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY/St. Francis Prep) dished out a career-high-tying seven assists as the Lady Bears combined for 28 assists, one shy of the team record also set against Yeshiva in 2006.  

Yeshiva (1-11, 0-2 HVWAC) was led by a pair of double-double performances from Rebecca Yoshor and Haley David.  Yoshor netted a team-high 16 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds with four blocks and four steals.  David added 11 points and secured 12 caroms.

Kakavas scored five early points with a layup and trifecta helping the Lady Bears jump out to an early 14-5 lead and gradually expanded their advantage until the final buzzer.  St. Joseph's grew a 38-19 halftime lead into a 30 point cushion, opening the second stanza with a 13-2 run.  The Lady Bears defense held Yeshiva to three field goals in the second half and the Maccabees would finish with an opponent-low 18 percent shooting (9-for-50) for the tilt.

St. Joseph's finished above 40 percent shooting (42 percent, 33-for-79) for fifth time during the six-game win streak.  The Lady Bears also held a 52-40 rebounding edge and dominated paint scoring, 32-8.  The bench which saw no less than 15 minutes of playing time each accounted for 41 points.

St. Joseph's improves to 23-1 in the all-time series, winning the last 14 meetings.

The Lady Bears wrap up their HVWAC regular season slate returning to action tomorrow, February 7th, facing Vaughn College on the road.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7 pm at Hostos Community College.