The Berkeley College men's basketball team continued to roll on Wednesday evening, as the Knights defeated the Sound of Five Towns College by a score of 120-91 in a contest played in Dix Hills, NY. With the victory, Berkeley improved to an impressive 6-1 on the season, while the Sound fell to 8-4 on the 2017-2018 campaign. Following the victory, Head Coach Jonathan Pena gave his thoughts.
"Great team effort by our student-athletes here this evening," Pena said. "Five Towns College did a fine job of staying with us in the first half, but I feel we moved into a higher gear in the second stanza and really started to run away with the game. Five players scored in double figures for us, and at least 13 different players scored at least two points, so I was very impressed with our team chemistry and cohesiveness throughout the night. We'll have two days off now before getting ready to play two games in a 21-hour span this weekend."
Standout Thaddeus Hall was nearly perfect on the evening in all facets, as he connected on seven of his nine attempts from the floor and seven of his eight shots from the free throw line to finish with a team-high 22 points. He also committed just one turnover. Nigel Hemingway drained six of his 10 shots to finalize his evening with 16 points and three assists, and Michael Taylor contributed 13 points and four rebounds. Veteran Johnnie Green added 12 points and six rebounds, and Mohammed Camara netted 10 points and pulled down six boards.
Five Towns College stuck with Berkeley College in the early stages of the game, as the Sound led 12-11 with 11:48 remaining in the opening half. Taylor would give Berkeley College the lead for good at that point, sinking two freebees to push the Knights ahead 13-12. Berkeley would never relinquish that lead again, despite Five Towns College playing with urgency throughout the course of the opening session.
It wasn't until with 4:28 remaining in the first half that Berkeley College started to build its lead. Hemingway's three point basket gave Berkeley College a 37-29 edge, and the Knights would outscore Five Towns College 13-10 the remainder of the session to grab a 50-39 lead as the teams headed to the locker room for halftime.
The Knights were on fire in the second half, hitting 26 of their 38 shots from the field and connecting on 14 of their 18 attempts from the charity stripe en route to netting a whopping 70 points in the period. Berkeley College's defense forced 15 opposition turnovers in the final 20 minutes of action, and the Knights outscored the Sound 70-52 in the second period to account for the 29-point blowout win.
Despite the loss for the Sound, Kyree Sawyer scored a game-high 27 points to go along with five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. John Francois was a perfect seven-for-seven from the field, as he finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Alexis Pena added 17 points, three boards, three assists, and two steals.
The Knights shot 55.3 percent from the floor (42-for-76) compared to 41 percent for Five Towns College (32-78). Berkeley tallied 25 assists to 15 for the Sound, and the Knights held a slim 47-42 edge on the glass. The teams were even in the turnovers category, committing 24 miscues apiece.
Berkeley College will return to action on Saturday evening, as the Knights will take on the College of St. Joseph (Vermont) at 5:30pm. The game will take place at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in Lower Manhattan.
