Brooklyn, NY --- The Brooklyn College Women's Basketball team defeated the Lady Bears of St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) in a borough battle, 65-55, on Tuesday night at the West Quad Center on the BC campus. With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 12-5 overall on the season, while the Lady Bears drop to an even 9-9 overall on the year.

The first half featured a tight affair with five ties and four lead changes. Brooklyn took control of the game early on, as BC jumped out to a 7-0 run to begin the night. St. Joseph's (BK) would get its first bucket of the night at the 15:41 mark of the first half. Trailing by six, 8-2, with 15:03 left in the opening period, the Lady Bears rattled off a 12-0 run to turn the tables and take a six point cushion of their own, 14-8, with 9:18 remaining before intermission.

Brooklyn would chip away at its deficit and both teams would exchange leads as the teams headed into the halftime break knotted up at 28 all. The Bulldogs struggled shooting from the field going 9-for-38 (23.7%) in the first half, but did hit five trifectas in the stanza to help keep them in the game.

The second half saw Brooklyn once again start off hot, as the Bulldogs scored the first 13 points of the period to take a 41-28 advantage, with 17:45 left in the game. Senior Brittany Bowen powered the run scoring eight of the 13 points, including hitting two big three pointers in the span.

The Lady Bears would be unable to recover from Brooklyn's offensive surge to start the second half, as the Bulldogs kept St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) at arm's length throughout the rest of the game. BC would lead by as many as 15, 51-36, with 13:50 remaining, en route to taking home the 65-55 victory.

BC's defensive intensity was a key to the win, as the Bulldogs scored 24 points off of 26 St. Joe's (BK) turnovers.

Bowen finished the night with a game and season-high 29 points, going 9-for-18 from the first and 4-for-12 from three. She was also a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. Bowen also had four steals on the night.

Sophomore Nicole Francomano added nine points and eight assists, while senior Tiffany Thompson also had nine points to go with eight rebounds and classmate Charnelle Saint Laurent chipped in with eight points and six steals. Junior Vanessa D'Ambrosi contributed with eight rebounds and three steals.

Brooklyn, currently ranked fourth in all of Division III in steals-per-game (17.7), continued to rack up steals, as the Bulldogs finished with 18 swipes for the game.

Janine Doran finished with a team-high 12 points for the Lady Bears, to go with seven rebounds; while Samantha Retas and Megan Moran added 11 points each. Retas also added a game-high 10 rebounds to record her 11th double-double of the season. She currently ranks 13th in the nation in double-doubles.

For the game, Brooklyn shot 31.3% (21-67) from the field and 29.6% (8-27) from three. The Bulldogs also shot 51.7% (15-29) from the free throw line.

St. Joseph's (BK) finished the game shooting 35.3% (18-51) from the field and 27.3% (3-11) from beyond the arc. The Lady Bears also went 16-26 (61.5%) from the charity stripe.

Brooklyn returns to action this Friday, January 25th, as the Bulldogs will play host to the Dolphins of the College of Staten Island in a key City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) showdown. Both teams will enter the game with an identical 6-2 conference mark, tied for second in the league. Brooklyn will also look to even up the season series, as CSI defeated BC on its home court back on December 1st, 67-65. Friday's game will also be Women's Basketball Alumni Night, as numerous past members of BC's Women's Basketball program will return to campus once again.