Warriors Fall to St. Joseph's College in HVIAC Championship

Astoria, N.Y. – The Warriors looked to cap off a phenomenal season in the HVIAC championship game on February 16 in front of a packed crowd at the College of New Rochelle Wellness Center. In order to claim the HVIAC championship trophy they would have to go through a tough and talented St. Joseph's College Bears team. St. Joseph's was the HVIAC regular season champions and went undefeated in conference play this season. This was not the first time these two teams would meet in the conference championship. In 2010 St. Joseph's defeated the Vaughn Warriors to claim, in what the conference was formerly called, the HVMAC championship.

The Warriors struggled to score the ball in the first half. Not a single Warrior scored double digits. As a team the Warriors shot less than 30 percent from the field and shot 50 percent from the foul line. At the half time break the Warriors trailed St. Joseph's College 27-49.

All season long the Warriors showed the uncanny ability to erase big leads from their opponents. There was no quit in the Warriors as they clawed their way back in the game. Led by senior captain guard Jared Ndiba's (Roxbury, NJ) 22 points, the Warriors would cut the lead to 14 points with just a little over four minutes left to play in the game.

St. Joseph's College never let the Warriors come within 10 points of the lead. Four players for the Bears scored double digits in the game. The Bears were carried by the dominant play of their two star forwards David Louison and Michael Megafu. Louison scored 25 points and pulled down 17 rebounds.  Megafu added 22 points and six rebounds of his own. Guard Vernon Maddox played 39 minutes for the Bears and poured in 19 points. Matt O'Neil chipped in with 11 points.

Time was not on the Warriors side as the game clock continued to dwindle. The Warriors didn't have enough gas left in the tank to pull off another come from behind victory, something in which they did in the semi-finals game against Berkeley College (NY) just the day before.

Ron Wyatt (Washingtonville, NY) and Eric Mc'Donald (Peekskille, NY) scored 12 points apiece for the Warriors but were in foul trouble for the entire game allowing St. Joseph's College to have their way on the boards. Maleec Taylor (Rockville Centre, NY) scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, swiped four steals, and dished out four assists for the Warriors.

Vaughn College was defeated by St. Joseph's College by final score of 76-92. The Warriors finish the season with an overall 14-11 record and 5-2 in the HVIAC.