The Berkeley College men's basketball team dropped a road game on Tuesday evening, falling to Neumann University at the Mirenda Center for Sport, Spirituality, and Character Development in Aston, PA by a score of 97-85. With the defeat, Berkeley dipped to 1-4 on the 2024-2025 campaign, while Neumann improved to 5-3.
Jesse Taylor paced Berkeley despite the defeat, as the standout connected on five shots from long range, and seven of his 11 attempts overall, to finish with a team-high 22 points. He also collected five rebounds, as well. Ike Sheppard and Karif Isaacs scored 15 points apiece, with Sheppard also pulling down a team-best seven rebounds, dishing three assists, and swatting a pair of shots, and Isaacs dishing a team-high five assists, and Deontay Sprattley finalized his evening with 11 points, three boards, and three dimes.
DJ Earl drained five triples on the evening for Neumann, and the standout converted on nine of his 17 shots overall, to finish with a game-high 26 points. He also tied for the game-highs of nine rebounds and six assists. TJ Lewis (10-15 FG) registered 23 points while pulling down five rebounds and dishing three assists, and Nigel Burch netted 13 points, tied for the game-high of nine rebounds, and swatted a game-best two shots. Bryan Etienne and Gary Francis scored 10 points apiece, with Etienne also adding six rebounds and four assists, and Francis collecting four boards.
Berkeley raced out to an early 12-3 advantage in the opening 2:57 of action, with Taylor draining a pair of three-point attempts to cap that early spurt. After Neumann put together a modest 5-0 run to pull to within four (12-8), an 11-5 run by the visitors gave Berkeley a 23-13 edge with 11:58 remaining in the first half.
Berkeley's largest lead of the opening half came with 8:59 remaining in the stanza when Jerald Campbell converted on a jumper to give the visitors an 11-point edge (32-21). Over the ensuing 7:25, the home squad outscored Berkeley 22-10 to catapult ahead by a score of 43-42. That aforementioned Neumann run was led by Earl, as he scored nine points during that span. Neumann extended the run 29-10 by scoring the final nine points of the half to take a 52-42 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Over the opening 2:58 of the second half, Neumann continued its offensive barrage, outscoring Berkeley 10-0 to extend its overall run to 39-10. At that juncture of the contest, the hosts held a commanding 62-42 lead. Five consecutive points by Sprattley halted the bleeding for Berkeley, as the visitors pulled to within 15, 62-47, with 16:10 to go.
The next 9:53 of action featured Neumann gradually building its commanding lead, as the hosts went up by 27 points (89-62) with 6:17 to go. One last Berkeley run (A 12-0 spurt to pull to within 15, 89-74) made the game semi-interesting with 3:35 to go, but a converted triple from Earl, and a hoop by Mike Smith III put the hosts back up 18 (94-76), and Neumann would eventually win the game by 12 (97-85).
Both teams shot well from the floor, but Neumann established itself as the more efficient team, connecting on 54.7 percent of its shots for the night (35-64), while Berkeley earned a 41.2 percent conversion rate (28-68). Neumann held a 42-35 edge on the glass, while also swiping 11 steals to the visitors' seven. Berkeley did hold advantages in assists (20-19) and blocked shots (5-3), but the hosts won the turnover battle, committing 16 miscues, while Berkeley had 18.
Berkeley will return to action on Saturday, as they'll stay on the road and battle Villa Maria in a North American Conference for Intercollegiate Athletics game. Start-time for the clash is scheduled for 3:00pm.
