The No. 1 seeded Berkeley College men's basketball team (18-5 Overall, 6-0 HVIAC) advanced to the championship of the 2014-2015 Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, as the Knights defeated the No. 4 seeded Panthers of Albany College of Pharmacy (5-16 Overall, 3-3 HVIAC) by a score of 76-59 in the semifinal round on Saturday afternoon at the Albert M. White Gymnasium in Albany, NY. With the victory, the Knights will face the the No. 2 seeded Bears of St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) in the conference's title game tomorrow at 2:00pm. St. Joseph's turned back Vaughn College, 82-71 in the other semifinal contest.
The game was tightly contested for a majority of the first half, with Berkeley College holding on to just a five point lead – 20-15 – with 5:59 remaining in the opening stanza. The Knights would put together a strong run to close the period, however, outscoring the Panthers 24-7 for the remainder of the session to take a commanding 44-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half saw the Panthers valiantly attempt to get themselves back into the game, but the Knights would never let Albany College of Pharmacy get any closer than 13 points down. Berkeley would eventually go up by as many as 25 points in the game (75-50), before eventually going on to win the contest by 17.
In the victory for the Knights, Berkeley College was paced by first-year standout Massiah Merritt, as he connected on nine of his 15 shot attempts while scoring a team-high 19 points. He also grabbed nine rebounds, tallied a game-high five steals, and picked-up two assists. Senior Kenton Chan-Man contributed 16 points and two steals, and veteran Keenan Langston added 10 points and three caroms. Stephon Jennings also netted 10 points while tallying three steals. Following the win, Berkeley College Head Coach Chris Christiansen gave his thoughts.
"We knew coming into this game that it would be a challenge for us, and we didn't want to have a letdown," Christiansen said. "To come into this tournament and play Albany College of Pharmacy on its home floor in the semifinals the way we did, I feel it speaks volumes about our team's focus and its character. These student-athletes have played so well collectively all season long, and if they do that tomorrow, they'll be HVIAC champions. We'll enjoy this victory for a little while, but we know in less than 24 hours, it's time to get back to work."
Despite the loss for Albany College of Pharmacy, the Panthers were led by freshman Alex Johnson, as he put on a shooting clinic, connecting on all five of his attempts from downtown and 13 of his 16 attempts overall while contributing a game-high 33 points. He also grabbed six rebounds on the afternoon, as well. Additionally, Emmanuel Okafor posted a double-double with 11 points a game-high 13 rebounds.
Berkeley College shot well from the floor all afternoon, nailing 30 of their 65 attempts from the floor (46.2 percent conversion rate) compared to the Panthers who shot just 35 percent on the day (21-60). The Knights dished 12 assists to Albany College of Pharmacy's seven, while also collecting 12 steals compared to six for the Panthers. Albany did hold a 45-37 edge in the rebounding department.
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