New York, NY --- For the second consecutive season, the Brooklyn College Women's Basketball team has advanced to the championship final of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC)/Con Edison Women's Basketball Championships, as 2 seed BC defeated the 3 seeded Dolphins of the College of Staten Island, 78-66, in the semifinals on Wednesday night at Nat Holman Gymnasium on the campus of the City College of New York.

Brooklyn now improves to 22-5 overall on the season, tying the school record for wins in a season, which was set a year ago. The Bulldogs now advance to Saturday's championship final against top seed Baruch College. Baruch defeated Hunter College in their semifinal matchup earlier today. The game will be a rematch of last year's final, which was won by Baruch. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 pm at Nat Holman Gym at CCNY.

Staten Island falls to 16-11 overall on the season.

CSI would be the first team to strike, as the Dolphins jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. Staten Island would lead by as many as six points on three occasions. Following a pair of free throws from Melanie Johnson that put CSI up, 17-11, at the 11:08 mark of the opening half, the Bulldogs rattled off 11 straight points to take a 22-17 advantage with 9:12 remaining before the halftime break.

The Dolphins would answer quickly with a 7-0 run to regain the lead, 24-22, with 7:01 left in the first half. From that point forward, BC would outscore CSI 21-9 to close out the stanza and take a 10-point, 43-33, halftime lead into the locker room.

Brooklyn, currently ranked third in the country in steals per game (17.4), racked up 11 steals in the half en route to forcing 13 turnovers, which eventually led to 15 points off of turnovers for the Bulldogs, to aide in building their halftime cushion. BC's Vanessa D'Ambrosi, a CUNYAC First-Team All-Star, led the charge scoring 15 points in the first half. Seniors Tiffany Thompson, a CUNYAC Second-Team All-Star, and Charnelle Saint Laurent added eight points each in the period.

The second half featured a tight affair; however, the Dolphins would be unable to recover from its halftime deficit, as BC edged out CSI 35-33 in the second period en route to its 78-66 victory. The Bulldogs would never trail in the game in the second stanza.

D'Ambrosi, Thompson and Saint Laurent all finished the night with 18 points apiece. Thompson also grabbed 10 rebounds to record a double-double. Saint Laurent also dished out five assists, to go with seven rebounds. Senior Brittany Bowen, a CUNYAC First-Team All-Star, grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Bulldogs held the rebounding edge, 49-33, which led to 22 second chance points for the BC.

CSI was led by Melanie Johnson's game-high 20 points. Lisa Galasso finished with 15 points, while Nikki Fabozzi registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.