The Berkeley College men's basketball team continued its stellar play on Sunday evening, grounding the Falcons of Davis College by a score of 95-82 in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest. The game took place in Johnson City, NY. The win – Berkeley's 19th straight – improved the Knights to 22-1 on the year (7-0 HVIAC), while dropping Davis to 9-13 on the 2017-2018 campaign – and 3-4 in league play. Following the victory, Head Coach Jonathan Pena spoke.
"We scored 95 points in this game, but I truly felt our defensive tenacity turned out to be the difference," Pena said. "We only allowed them to shoot a little better than 30 percent from the floor, while also forcing 23 turnovers and recording 12 steals. We're going to need to continue that trend as we get ready to compete in Regional and National tournaments. The teams that will potentially play us in those tournaments are going to be hungry, and we need to continue to eclipse the opposition's intensity. I'm very proud of this group. We'll enjoy this one before getting back to work on Wednesday in our season finale."
With the triumph today, the Knights - who have remarkably won 90 of their last 93 games as a program - clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament. Berkeley's opponent in the semifinals will be the No. 4 seed – Vaughn College. The game will take place this Saturday, and start-time is scheduled for 5:00pm. Should the Knights be victories – they'll face either New Rochelle or Albany College of Pharmacy in the championship game at 3:00pm the following day.
Leading the way for Berkeley's 13-point win against the Falcons today was veteran Johnnie Green, as he continued his fantastic season, scoring a game-high 22 points while adding four rebounds. Ricardo Ayuso connected on eight of his 10 attempts from the floor to finish with 17 points while recording game-highs of five steals and five assists, and Michael Taylor nailed three shots from long range to finish with 15 points. He also snatched eight rebounds.
Despite the loss for Davis College, Anthony Gathings recorded tied for the team-high with 21 points while also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. His teammate – Jackson Henri – converted on three shots from downtown to score 21 points. He also grabbed six rebounds, tallied three assists, and recorded two steals. Ben Waterman and Kelvin Tompkins scored 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Remarkably – Berkeley College only misfired on 25 shots all day, shooting a whopping 60.9 percent from the floor (39-64). On the flip side, Davis College struggled mightily, hitting only 28 of its 91 attempts from the floor (30.8 percent). The Knights won the turnover battle, committing 17 miscues while forcing 23 Falcons mistakes. Berkeley College held a slim 31-29 edge in the rebounding department, while also recording 12 steals to Davis' seven. The Falcons did hold the edge in the assists category, recording 16 to the Knights' 12.
Berkeley College will close out its regular season on Wednesday evening, as the Knights will take on Vaughn College in a Valentine's Day contest. The game will take place at The Hill Center on the campus of St. Joseph's College of Brooklyn, and start-time is scheduled for 7:00pm.
