The Berkeley College New York women's basketball team dropped their third game in as many days, falling to the Builders of the Apprentice School by a score of 63-58 in a game played in Newport News, VA. With the loss, the Knights dipped to 11-5 on the year, while the Builders upper their mark to 9-7.
The Apprentice School raced out to an 11-3 lead at the 15:38 mark on a converted jumper by Jessica Neighbors. Berkeley College battled back with a 13-4 run over the next 7:07 to take a 16-15 lead on a Patricia Patterson layup with 8:31 remaining in the opening session. The teams traded the lead over the next few minutes before the Knights scored 10 of the next 12 points over a 2:25 span to lead 28-23 on a Katana Travis jumper with 3:57 left on the clock in the first half. Apprentice School cut the Knights' edge to one point twice, including a jumper from Quanisha Bruce with nine seconds left as the teams went into the locker room with Berkeley holding a 32-31 advantage.
In the second half, the Knights held a three-point lead twice with a three-pointer from Champagne Hazel with 16:15 left put them up 40-37. Berkeley went scoreless for the next 4:39 as Apprentice School took a 43-40 lead on a pair of freebees from Courtney white with 12:26 left remaining in the contest. Hazel stopped the scoring drought with a layup at the 11:36 mark for the first of four times the Knights got the margin to one point during the remainder of the half.
The Builders got the margin to seven points twice as a Bria Hill layup with 3:59 left gave the Apprentice School a 57-50 edge. Berkeley scored eight on the next ten points as Hazel hit a jumper with 1:58 left to get the Knights within a point at 59-58. Free throws from Ylexzis Trager and Hill helped ice the victory.
Despite the loss for the Knights, Berkeley College was paced by Hazel who scored a game-high 25 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. Patterson had 10 points and a game-high 17 rebounds, and Janay Thomas finalized her evening with 12 points and six rebounds
Traeger was the leading scorer for Apprentice School, as she netted 16 points and was the lone double figure scorer for the hosts. Bruce, Neighbors and Kenya Wilkerson each added eight points. Courtney White was the leading rebounder with 10, while Bruce added nine and Wilkerson had seven to go with eight assists.
Neither team shot the ball well from the floor, as the Knights hit on 37.7 percent of their attempts from the floor (23-61), and the Builders converted on 23 of their 68 shots (33.8 percent). The Apprentice School held a slim 48-45 edge in the rebounding department, and the Builders dished 17 assists to Berkeley's nine.
The Knights will look to stop their three-game losing skid on Saturday afternoon, as Berkeley will take to the road to battle the Blue Angels of the College of New Rochelle in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest. Start-time for that game is scheduled for 1:00pm.
