The Berkeley College women's basketball team is still searching for its first victory of the 2017-2018 season, as the Knights were defeated by the Golden Eagles of the College of Saint Elizabeth on Sunday afternoon by a score of 57-54.. The game took place at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in Lower Manhattan. With the loss, the Knights are now 0-4 on the season, while the Golden Eagles improved to 2-4. Following the loss, Head Coach Alex Kuchar gave his thoughts.
"We certainly showed some very good things this afternoon, but unfortunately, we were unable to put together that complete 40-minute effort, and that hurt us today," Kuchar said. "This team consists of very competitive student-athletes, but we need to be able to be more cohesive with the basketball throughout the game - and especially in the latter stages of contests. We'll learn from our mistakes today and continue to work towards becoming a better team."
Leading the way for the Golden Eagles in their victory was Deja Ingram, as she connected on 11 of her 18 shots from the floor and all five of her free throw attempts to finalize her afternoon with a game-high 27 points to go along with eight rebounds, a game-high four blocks, and three assists. Rakiyah Sellers added 11 points, a game-high seven steals, four assists, and two rebounds. Damaris King also added eight points in a winning effort for her squad.
Despite the loss for Berkeley College, Ayana Ratliff was absolutely fantastic for her squad, as she nailed nine of her 21 shots from the floor, while also draining six of her six attempts from the charity stripe while finishing with a team-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Ashley Duplan scored 11 points and snatched nine rebounds, and it was Jaiyamoira Myers contributing 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals.
The College of Saint Elizabeth held an 8-7 advantage in the opening 3:48 of action before going on a 7-0 run over a span of 3:08 to increase its lead to eight – 15-7 –with 3:04 remaining in the first period. A converted layup by Myers – and a three-point play by Lofton – brought Berkeley College to within three with 21 seconds remaining in the quarter. The Golden Eagles eventually held a 16-12 edge as the first quarter came to a close.
In the second quarter, the Golden Eagles outscored the Knights by a slim margin of 12-10 to take a 28-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The College of Saint Elizabeth came out strong in the third quarter, eventually going ahead by double figures – 38-27 – with 6:13 remaining in the period. Berkeley College would go on a nice run, though, scoring seven consecutive points over a span of 1:49. That 7-0 spurt featured a drained three-point basket by Ratliff, another bucket by Ratliff, and a converted layup by Myers. That made it 38-34 in favor of the Golden Eagles. After a layup by Ingram gave St. Elizabeth a six-point edge at 40-34, Duplan would connect on a three-pointer to pull her team to within three points.
College of Saint Elizabeth would finish the third quarter by going on a 10-4 run to take a 50-41 lead into the final session. That 10-4 run was highlighted by Sellers and IIngram, who had six and four points respectively during the spurt.
55 seconds into the fourth quarter, Duplan would drain a three-point basket to bring her team to within six points at 50-44. The score would not change for an astounding five minutes, until Myers would make a free throw with 4:00 remaining to bring Berkeley to within five points. Later – the Knights had multiple opportunities to take the lead or at least tie the game. Berkeley was down 55-54, but Myers would commit a turnover, and later – the team was trailing 57-54 – but Duplan would turn the ball over. The Knights would have one opportunity to tie the score in the waning seconds, but Myers would misfire on a potential game-tying three-point basket, giving the College of Saint Elizabeth the win.
The Golden Eagles shot 40.4 percent from the floor for the game (23-57), compared to 30.2 percent for the Knights (19-63). The Knights dominated on the glass, out-rebounding St. Elizabeth by a margin of 45-35. The Golden Eagles had 14 assists to Berkeley College's 11, and St. Elizabeth won the turnover battle, committing 20 mistakes while forcing 25 Knights miscues.
Berkeley College will now have nine days off before returning to action on Wednesday, December 13, as the Knights will travel to Dix Hills, NY to battle Five Towns College. Start-time for that contest is set for 6:00pm.