NEWPORT NEWS, VA. – A strong Apprentice School defense held the visiting St. Joseph's-Brooklyn Lady Bears to no field goals in an eight minute stretch of the second half to provide the spark in a 53-44 win on Sunday.

The visitors jumped out early as a Janine Doran layup put St. Joseph's up 9-2 with 15:30 left.  Christina Licano hit the first field goal for the Lady Builders at the 15:10 mark  as that started an 8-2 run cutting the lead to 11-10 on a Courtney Collins free throw with 13:04 left. 

Apprentice School tied it for the first time on a Denise Hamilton layup with 9:14 left at 16-all and the lead bounced between the team for several minutes before the Lady Builders pushed the advantage to 28-22 on a 3-pointer from Shanae Hilliard with 2:15 left.  A layup from Ashley McQuillan closed the scoring for St. Joseph's in the half bringing the guests to within one at 29-28.

In the second half, McQuillan hit a jumper to keep St. Joseph's near at 33-30 with 18:19 left before the rim turned ice cold.  The Lady Builders pushed the lead up to 41-31 on a Licano layup with 11:18 left as St. Joseph's was 0-for-8 with five turnovers in a spell that held until a McQuillan jumper with 10:02 left brought them to 41-34.  From that point, the lead was never lower than five points for Apprentice School as the hosts kept the Lady Bears at arms length.

Collins, Licano and Hamilton paced the Lady Builders with 10 points each, while Danita Whitaker matched her career high with 16 rebounds as she and Hilliard had eight points each.  Apprentice School shot 21-of-55 from the floor (38.2%) while holding the Lady Bears to 19-of-56 (33.9%) from the field.  St. Joseph's out-rebounded the Lady Builders 42-40 as they were paced by Doran with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Apprentice School returns to action on Friday night hosting the 2012 Martin Luther King Classic when they face Barber-Scotia College at 6 pm.