Lady Bears Basketball Falls to NYU in Season Opener

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Opening their season for the second straight year at the NYU Tip-Off Tournament, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team dropped a 68-53 decision to hosts NYU on Friday evening at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center.

The Lady Bears (0-1) will meet fellow 2012 NCAA Tournament participants Hartwick College in the third-place game tomorrow at 6 p.m. The Violets (1-0) will face New Paltz in the championship at 8 p.m. looking to capture their 11th straight Tip-Off Tournament title.

In her St. Joseph's debut, sophomore Samantha Retas (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) scored a game-high 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting and pulled down 13 rebounds for her first double-double as a Lady Bear.  Senior Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) scored 10 points, dished out a team-high four assists and had three steals. Junior Kelly McNamee (Glendale, NY/Mary Louis) rounded out three Lady Bears in double figures, chipping in 10 points, with four rebounds, three thefts and a pair of assists.

St. Joseph's held the lead for the first four minutes of the contest on baskets from Mangan, McNamee and Taylor Raccuglia (Brooklyn NY/Bishop Kearney).  But the Violets utilized a 12-2 run to take the lead for good, building a 17-9 advantage.

The Lady Bears scored five unanswered to cut the deficit to three, but couldn't come any closer, NYU pulling away to a 29-18 halftime lead, St. Joseph's plagued by 21 percent (5-for-24) shooting in the opening half.

In the second stanza, the Lady Bears found their range connecting on half their attempts (14-for-28) including 5-of-8 from behind the arc, cutting the deficit to single digits on several occasions, but could never cross the eight-point threshold.

St. Joseph's made a late surge using an 8-2 run powered by a pair of trifectas from Retas and Mangan capped by a McNamee layup to shrink a 14 point deficit to eight with just over three minutes remaining, forcing an NYU timeout.  But out of the break, Megan Dawe scored six in-a-row for the Violets, keeping the lead in double figures, holding off a Lady Bear upset bid.

Dawe finished with a team-high-tying 15 points falling one rebound shy of a double-double in only 24 minutes of action. Riley Wurtz also scored 15 points and pulled down 13 caroms, sharing game-high honors with Retas. Four Violets finished in double figures with Cassidy Jourdan netting 14 and Melissa Peng adding 10 points.

NYU won the battle on the boards, maintaining a 44-35 edge, 15 coming on the offensive glass leading to 11 second chance points. It was a sloppy first game for both teams, the two squads combining for 52 turnovers, the Lady Bears committing 29 miscues, which NYU converted into 22 points.

It was the first meeting between the two squads since 1982 in a series that dates all the way back to the 1924-25 season. St. Joseph's holds a 35-11-1 advantage in the all-time series.