The Berkeley College men's basketball team rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit on Monday evening to defeat Central Penn by a score of 109-90 in a contest played at the Wellness Center on the campus of the College of New Rochelle. The game served as the home opener for the Knights – and with the victory – Berkeley improved to a mark of 2-1 on the year, and has now won two consecutive games following a season-opening defeat. Central Penn slipped to 7-3 with the loss.
Central Penn connected on six of its first eight attempts from the floor while racing out to an early 13-4 lead during the opening 2:44 of the contest. Later in the session – Central Penn held a 33-21 edge, but an 8-0 run by Berkeley – capped by a Stephon Jennings dunk – brought the Knights to within four points at 33-29 with 7:33 remaining in the half.
Central Penn answered the Knights' run with a spurt of its own, outscoring Berkeley 8-2 over the ensuing 1:33 to push ahead by a score of 41-31. Berkeley would continue to keep it close, as a Jennings basket, followed by a converted jumper by Keenan Langston and a three-point basket by Massiah Merritt brought the Knights to within three points at 41-38 with just over four minutes remaining in the period.
Merritt's trey would be Berkeley's final field goal of the session, however, as Central Penn outscored Berkeley 15-1 for the remainder of the half to take a 56-39 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
In what could be considered one of the best halves in the history of the Berkeley College New York men's basketball program, the Knights not only rallied from 17 points down against the highest-scoring offense in the USCAA this season – but the Knights scored a whopping 70 points in the session while holding Central Penn to just 33.3 percent shooting (13-39) and 34 points for the half.
The Knights took the lead for good with 7:22 remaining in the game when – with the game tied at 77 apiece – Langston drained a pair of freebees to give Berkeley a 79-77 edge – an advantage the Knights would not relinquish. Berkeley eventually went up by as many as 23 before holding on to win by 19 points – a 36-point swing from when the team trailed by 17 at break.
It was another balanced, team-effort victory for the Knights – something that has become status quo for Chris Christiansen's group over the past two seasons – as four different players contributed at least 17 points in the win. Langston led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting. He also drilled all seven of his attempts from the charity stripe while posting game-highs in rebounds with 12 and assists with nine. He also tallied three steals.
Jennings posted a double-double with 21 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and a pair of swatted shots, and Merritt finalized his evening with 19 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals. Finally, it was Johnnie Green coming off the bench and playing 24 minutes, accounting for 17 points, 11 caroms, and a game-best four blocks. Following the victory, Head Coach Chris Christiansen gave his thoughts.
"Tonight was a complete team effort by our group, and I'm very proud of the way they believed in each other and got after it in the second half," Christiansen said. "Despite the fact that coming from behind to win games is not an ideal formula, it certainly tells you a lot about the character and confidence of this group that they believe they can find ways to win games no matter what situations are presented. In the second half, we created turnovers and shared the basketball, and those positives equaled a victory for us against a very formidable USCAA opponent. I'm very proud of this win, and we'll look to make it three in a row when we play The King's College in nine days."
Despite the loss for Central Penn, three different players contributed at least 19 points, with Tyree Tucker and John Starts Jr. netting 19 apiece, and Dominique Twiggs adding 17. Daron Johnson played 20 minutes off of the bench, netting 10 points.
Berkeley shot 47.8 percent from the floor for the night, nailing 43 of their 90 attempts from the floor. Central Penn shot a cut below – netting 45.7 percent of their attempts (37-81), but only 33 percent in the second half. The Knights dominated the glass, out-rebounding Central Penn 53-42, while also committing only 12 turnovers compared to 21 for the opposition.
The Knights will return to action on Thursday evening, December 3, as Berkeley will take on The King's College in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest at the College of New Rochelle. Start-time for that game is scheduled for 8:00pm.
