FINAL SCORE: Apprentice School 80, St Joseph's College-Brooklyn 69

RECORDS: Apprentice School 7-6, St. Joseph's College-Brooklyn 7-6

LOCATION: The Hill Center/Brooklyn, NY

RANKINGS: Apprentice School #10,  St. JOseph's College-Brooklyn #7

IN BRIEF: Ylexzis Traeger scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half as the Apprentice School  defeated St. Joseph's College-Brooklyn 80-69 in a key U.S. Collegiate Atlhetic Association contest on Saturday in Brooklyn, NY.
ON THE COURT

• In the first five minutes, neither team held more than a three-point advantage as a steal and layup from Shanae Hilliard put the Lady Builders up 9-6 with 16:26 left.  
• St. Joseph's responded with five of the next six points over a two minute span to take an 11-10 lead on a Samantha Retas 3-pointer with 14:24 remaining.  That proved to be the final lead of the game for the Lady Bears.
• Apprentice School ripped off a 12-4 run over the next 5:30 to take a 27-15 lead on a pair of Jessica Neighbors free throws with 8:54 left.      The hosts made a push responding with an 8-1 spurt to trim the margin to 28-23 with 5:22 left on a layup from Brittany Cervino.
• The Lady Builders got the advantage back to 12 on a pair of Kenya Wilkerson free throws with 1:44 left to lead 41-29, but the hosts scored the last four points including a Retas layup at the halftime buzzer to trail 41-33 at intermission.
• In the second half, Ylexzis Traeger scored the first nine points for the Lady Builders as a three-point play with 17:32 left put the visitors ahead 50-36 to match their largest lead of the game.    
• St. Joseph's had one more run in them scoring the next nine points to trim the deficit to 50-45 on a Destiny Marino layup with 14:43 left.  From there, the Lady Builders got the lead back up to 58-48 with 11:57 left on a Quanisha Bruce jumper.  The advantage stayed in the 8-11 point range the rest of the game.

BEHIND THE BOXSCORE

• Traeger paced five in double figures tonight for the Lady Builders with 18 points and seven rebounds.  She had 16 of those 18 in the second half, including the first nine points for the Lady Builders.
• The 3-point tandem of Courtney White and Shanae Hilliard each had 15 points as White was 3-for-8 and Hilliard 4-for-10 from behind the arc.
• Wilkerson nearly recorded a triple-double in the contest falling one rebound shy.  She had 13 points, dished out a career-best 12 assists and had six steals to go with her nine rebounds.  The 12 assists, topped her previous high of 11 on Friday night at Briarcliffe, and also puts her with the second-most in a single-game as the school record is shared with 13 assists.
• Bruce joined them in double figures scoring all 12 of her points in the second half to go along with six rebounds.
• As a team, the Lady Builders forced 30 Lady Bears turnovers and held them to 32.3% shooting in the second half.  For the game, the Lady Builders hit 40.9% from the floor (27-of-66), 38.9% from 3-point land (7-of-18) and 79.2% from the line (19-24).  They were out-rebounded 47-41.
• St. Joseph's had four in double figures as Retas topped the game with 23 points and 17 rebounds to lead them.  The team was 25-of-60 from the floor (41.7%), 2-of-7 from 3-point land (28.6%) and 17-of-29 (58.6%) from the foul line.

USCAA RANKINGS
This was a huge victory for the Lady Builders as St. Joseph's entered the game ranked #7 in the latest United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Coaches Poll.  Apprentice School started the weekend ranked #10.
NEXT UP - MLK CLASSIC
The Lady Builders return to the home hardwood on Friday night at 6 pm when they take on Briarcliffe College in the first of three-games at home next weekend.
On Saturday, they'll face St. Mary of the Woods College at 4 pm and then will end the three-day classic by facing Berkeley College also at 4pm on Sunday.