The Berkeley College women's basketball team won its second consecutive game, turning back the Lions of The King's College on Thursday evening by a score of 68-23 in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest played at the Wellness Center on the campus of the College of New Rochelle. The victory for Berkeley improved the Knights to 2-2 on the season (1-0 HVIAC), while the Lions dropped to 1-2 (0-1 HVIAC).
Berkeley started fast out of the gate, racing out to a 10-0 lead just 2:08 into the first quarter. That early spurt was highlighted by a pair of converted layups by first-year standout Tracy McFadden, and the run was capped by made jump shot by Letisha Bolden. King's College would respond with an 8-1 run over the ensuing 4:47 of the period to cut the Knights' advantage to three points at 11-8, but Berkeley would account for the final six points of the quarter to grab a 17-8 edge as the opening period came to a close.
In the second quarter, neither team scored for the opening 3:05 until Kiara Johnson made a layup to give Berkeley a 19-8 lead. Another layup and two converted free throws from Johnson, as well as a Jinedia Harkness basketball and another lay-in by Johnson gave the Knights a commanding 27-8 advantage. A modest 6-2 Lions run sliced Berkeley's edge to 29-14 as the teams entered their locker rooms at halftime.
Berkeley College absolutely dominated the third quarter, out-scoring The King's College by a count of 21-3 while holding the Lions without a field goal for the entire period. On the flip side, the Knights connected on 40 percent of their attempts from the floor in the quarter (8-20), and Bolded netted 10 of her game-high 25 points in the period as well. After three quarters of play, the Knights led by a score of 50-17.
In the fourth quarter, Berkeley would go up by as many as 39 points before eventually going on to win the contest by 35 in impressive fashion. Following the victory, Head Coach Jay Lynch gave his thoughts.
"It was very encouraging to see us come out with plenty of energy in the early stages of the game," Lynch said. "We took a big lead in the opening minutes of the contest, and I feel as though that set the tone for the evening. It was great to see us pick up a win in our first conference game of the year – and we've now strung together two consecutive victories. We'll look to keep the positive momentum going Saturday at Davis."
Pacing the Knights on the evening was Bolden, as she posted a double-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds, eight steals and a pair of assists. Johnson netted 20 points, snatched four boards, and tallied four steals, and McFadden added eight points and 14 rebounds as well. Lorene Brown posted game-highs in rebounds with 17 and blocks with four.
Despite the loss for The King's College, the Lions were led by Kara Simmons who played 32 minutes and scored a team-high nine points to go along with seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Nicole Cordero recorded a team-high 10 caroms.
The Knights shot 35 percent from the field for the evening (28-80) while holding the Lions to just 13.3 percent shooting (8-60). Berkeley forced 31 opposition turnovers and turned that into 32 points while committing just 13 turnovers of its own. The Knights out-rebounded The King's College by a slight margin of 55-50.
The Knights will look to make it two consecutive Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victories and three straight wins overall on Saturday, as Berkeley will take to the road to battle conference foe Davis College. Start-time for that contest is scheduled for 4:00pm.
