The defending USCAA National champion Berkeley College Knights began their 2015-2016 season on Friday and nearly pulled off what would have been an incredible upset, as Berkeley fell to the Mavericks of Mercy College by a score of 85-80 in a contest played at the Mercy Gymnasium in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. The game served as the season-opener for both clubs.
The Knights' only lead of the game came at the 18:22 mark of the opening session when senior Keenan Langston drained a three-point basket to put Berkeley College up by a score of 3-2. Mercy College owned the remainder of the half, as the Mavericks outscored the Knights 51-26 the remainder of the period to take a 54-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, the Knights put forth a valiant effort and gradually cut into the Maverick lead. After Mercy College took its biggest lead of the game on a converted layup by Gerald McClease (56-29), Berkeley began its push. Massiah Merritt connected on a three-point basket on the Knights' next possession, and veteran Stephon Jennings followed that with a layup to pull Berkeley to within 22 at 56-34.
Three converted freebees by Mercy College (two from Shaquille Stokes and one from McClease) put the Mavericks back up 25 at 59-34, but an 18-4 Knights run over a span of 5:39 brought Berkeley to within 11 points at 63-52 with 12:26 remaining in regulation.
Later – with Mercy College still leading by 11 (65-54 at this point) – the Knights got within single digits when first-year player Malik Brown connected on a shot from downtown to trim the Maverick lead to eight points at 65-57 with 10:38 to go. Just 1:06 later – a Langston layup sliced the Mercy lead to just six points (65-59).
Despite drawing so close, Berkeley's shooting went cold over the ensuing 2:42 of play, as the Knights missed their next seven shots while Mercy's McClease nailed four shots from the charity stripe to push the Mavericks' advantage back to 10 points at 69-59.
Berkeley would continue to claw in an attempt to catch Mercy – and the Knights did get to within four points on two different occasions (76-72 at the 2:02 mark and 81-77 with 52 seconds left), but the Mavericks held Berkeley to just one-for-five shooting in the final 52 seconds and hung on to win the game by five points.
Despite the loss for the Knights, Berkeley was paced by Merritt who scored a game-high 27 points while connecting on three triples and eight of his 10 attempts from the charity stripe. He also dished four assists on the evening as well. Langston netted 16 points while tying for the team-lead in rebounds with seven. Additionally, he tallied two assists and notched two steals. Newcomer Malik Brown added 16 points while nailing four three-point baskets in 26 minutes off of the bench.
Five players scored in double figures for Mercy College, including Stokes who netted a team-high 16 points while draining all five of his free throw attempts. Tyseem Lyles added 14 points and seven rebounds, and Isaiah Cosbert and K.J. Rose netted 11 points apiece. Finally, it was William Robinson finalizing his evening with a double-double, dropping-in 10 points while snatching 10 rebounds.
Mercy College connected on 46 percent of its shots on the night (29-63), while Berkeley nailed 35.5 percent of its attempts (27-76). Both teams struggled from the free throw line, with the Knights misfiring on 15 freebees (18-33), while the Mavericks clanked 14 (23-37). Mercy held a 55-43 edge on the glass, while Berkeley recorded 13 assists compared to nine for the Mavericks. The opportunistic Knights out-scored Mercy 24-16 in the points-off-turnovers department.
The Knights will look to bounce back tomorrow evening, as Berkeley College will take on Newbury at the Pappas Gymnasium in Brookline, MA. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 6:00pm. Live video for that contest is available by clicking the link below:
