St. Joseph's (Bklyn) Comeback Bid Against Purchase Falls Short

PURCHASE, NY – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team nearly erased a nine-point halftime deficit, but couldn't overcome Purchase College falling 58-54 on the road on Thursday night.

St. Joseph's (3-11) was led by junior Teresa Mangan(Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) who netted a game-high 15 points coming off the bench.  Senior Ashley McQuillan (Brooklyn, NY/St. Francis Prep) tallied 14 points, the only other Lady Bear in double figures. Junior Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) added eight points and grabbed a team-best seven boards.

Purchase (5-9) was led by Alyse LaPadula who scored 14 points and dished out a game-high five assists. Christina Rupp tacked on 13 points and Alyssa Guido added eight points with a game high 10 rebounds.

The Lady Bears got off to a quick start after Joanna Marciniec (Glendale, NY/Baruch) knocked down a trifecta on the opening possession and McQuillan followed with a steal and a layup to take a 5-0 lead.  But Purchase responded with a 14-4 run to take a five point lead of their own, with Guido scoring all eight of her points during the spurt with a pair of three-pointers and a pair of free throws.

The two evenly matched teams went back-and-forth for the remainder of the half producing six more lead changes until the Panthers closed the period with 11 unanswered, holding the Lady Bears scoreless over the final 4:17 to take a 32-23 lead at the break.

After the Panthers scored a layup on their first possession of the second half to extend their lead to 11, the Lady Bears went on a 9-0 run sparked by Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic) who had four points and swatted away two shots in the span and capped by the first of Mangan's three triples.  Another Mangan three-pointer at the 13:31 mark would shrink the deficit to one, 40-39, but the Lady Bears were unable to take the lead and the Panthers built their advantage back to nine with just under five minutes remaining.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Mangan and McQuillan set off an 8-0 run as and the Lady Bears pulled within one again, 51-50 with 1:41 to play.  But St. Joseph's would be unable to complete another late comeback, the Panthers receiving a pair of free throws and a three pointer from LaPadula to push the lead back to six and hold off the Lady Bears.

The Panthers shot 38 percent (20-of-53) and the Lady Bears finished on 33 percent (21-of-64) shooting. The Lady Bears drained seven three-pointers, matching a season-high set against Clarkson in the second game of the season.  The Lady Bears also combined for seven blocks -- led by Marciniec with three -- the most swats in a game dating back to the 2009-10 season. 

St. Joseph's will look to snap a three-game skid, beginning their Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference league schedule on Saturday, January 21st facing Berkeley College in the tail-end of a doubleheader at Borough of Manhattan Community College.  The men tip-off the action at 3 p.m. and the women follow at 5 p.m.  Fans can follow both games with live stats available on www.sjcbears.com.