The Berkeley College men's basketball team won its fourth consecutive game, defeating the Fighting Saints of the College of St. Joseph (Vermont) by a score of 115-75 Saturday evening at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. With the victory, the Knights improved their record to 7-1 on the season, while the Fighting Saints are still searching for their first victory on the 2017-2018 campaign, as they dipped to 0-10. Following the win, Head Coach Jonathan Pena gave his thoughts.
"Once again – and this has become a theme for our group – tonight was a fantastic team-effort," Pena said. "Many different players contributed, and I felt we did a good job of keeping the College of St. Joseph (Vermont) at bay all evening. I'm going to tell these guys to get some good rest tonight because we have another game coming up in about 20 hours from now."
It was the third meeting in four seasons between the College of St. Joseph's (Vermont) and Berkeley College. The most memorable confrontation between the two squads came back in the semifinal round of the 2014-2015 USCAA National Men's Basketball Tournament semifinals, when the Knights outlasted the Fighting Saints 115-111 in a three-overtime thriller. Since then, though, the games between the two have not been close. The Knights claimed victory against College of St. Joseph's Vermont 86-61 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College back on January 19, 2006, before hanging 115 points and a 40-point win on the Fighting Saints earlier tonight.
Today's win was the third consecutive game in which the Knights reached the 100-point mark, and that is the first time that Berkeley College has accomplished that feat that since December 10-December 29 of 2016, when they scored 100 points or more in three straight wins over Culinary (12/10/16), New Rochelle (12/14/16), and Cincinnati-Clermont (12/29/16).
In the victory for Berkeley College, Michael Taylor was superb, as he connected on nine of his 15 shots on the evening - including four of his eight launches from beyond the three point arc - to finish with a game-high 26 points. He also added five rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals. Nigel Hemingway drained three shots from downtown to finish his night with 19 points, and Ricardo Ayuso added 15 points and a game-high six steals. Veteran Johnnie Green netted 13 points, grabbed six rebounds, tallied three assists, and recorded two steals, and Darius Ward added 10 points and five caroms.
Despite the loss for the College of St. Joseph (Vermont), Jonathan Brioso nailed eight of his 14 shots from the floor to finish with a team-high 20 points. Trent Torain hit all three of his shots from the floor while shooting six-for-six from the charity stripe to finish with evening with 13 points, and Tyreke Woodard and Quadarius Spence scored 10 points apiece.
The Knight shot a whopping 59.7 percent from the floor (46-77) compared to 43.6 percent for the Fighting Saints (24-55). Berkeley College connected on 10 of their 23 shots from beyond-the-arc for the evening compared to just four-of-23 from downtown for the College of St. Joseph (Vermont). The Knights tallied 25 assists compared to 13 for the Fighting Saints, and the College of St. Joseph (Vermont) held a slim 34-33 edge on the glass. The Knights forced more than twice the turnovers that they committed, as the Fighting Saints turned the basketball over 37 times compared to 18 times for Berkeley. The Knights netted 52 points in the pain compared to 26 for the College of St. Joseph (Vermont).
The Knights will return to action tomorrow afternoon, as Berkeley College will look to make it five consecutive victories when they take on the Clippers of the University of Maine at Machias. The game will take place at the Hill Center on the campus of the College of St. Joseph's (Brooklyn). Start-time is scheduled for 2:30pm.
