Brooklyn, NY---The West Quad Center played host to a dogfight on Thursday evening as the host Brooklyn College Bulldogs knocked off the visiting John Jay College Bloodhounds, 78-68.  The win was a pivotal one for BC, improving their record to 10-8, 6-2 in the conference, while John Jay falls to 8-10 and 5-3 in CUNYAC play.

Brooklyn started the game hot as a jumper by Justine O'Callahan, followed by a long three from Lauren Plagainos, gave the home squad an early 5-0 lead.  Tiayana Logan scored a basket from close range to extend the lead to seven, before Bloodhound guard Dominique Grice got her team on the scoreboard with a free throw. 

Neither team would make much headway over the next six minutes of play as the scoreboard would read 17-10 with under 10:30 to play.  Brooklyn would go on a huge 18-6 run, capped by a jumper by freshman Allison Donovan, to give them their largest lead of the half, 35-16, with 3:38 to go in the stanza.

John Jay would show some fight as the half end to cut the deficit to 16, 36-20, as Jessica Lirio converted on one of two from the charity stripe.

Brooklyn started to pull away in the second half as they upped the lead to 22, their largest of the game, on two separate occasions.  The second time being at the 9:27 mark when Justine O'Callahan put in two free throws to give the Bulldogs the 61-39 advantage. 

John Jay again showed their fight as they went on a 12-0 run of their own, cutting the deficit to 12, 61-49.  BC had an answer as O'Callahan and Elisha Raiford came up with consecutive baskets to balloon the lead back to 16.

The Bloodhounds were not done and after some spotty free throw shooting by Brooklyn, they cut the lead to under 10 for the first time at the 54 second mark, as two Lirio free throws made it a 73-65 game.  John Jay immediately fouled and Ariel Smith made on of two from the line, increasing the lead to nine, but Grice was able to find a crease and drove the line for the basket and foul, cutting the score to 74-68.

It was Amber Gordon who was fouled this time for the Bulldogs, making one of two from the line again.  John Jay was not as fortunate with their possession this time as Plagainos came up with a steal and John Jay was forced to foul again.  Smith made three of her final four attempts at the line as BC won by 10.

O'Callahan was the leading scorer on the evening for BC, finishing with 23 points and 14 rebounds.  Plagainos chipped in with a 17 big points on six of eight from the field, including three of four from three-point range.  Smith rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11, while nabbing three steals.

Off the Brooklyn bench, Gordon poured in nine points and five assists, while Kelly Jamison finished with eight points and five boards. 

Jamecia Forsythe led four in double-figures for John Jay with 18 points.

John Jay will play back to back days as they play Medgar Evers tomorrow in another conference showdown, while Brooklyn will be on the road Saturday to take on CCNY at 3pm in an all-important league contest.