LEHMAN COMEBACK STUNS KNIGHTS

The Berkeley College New York men’s basketball team held the lead against the Lehman College Lightning for the entire game - except the final 4.6 seconds as the Lightning hit two free throws to stun the Knights 72-71 in a non-conference matchup held at John Jay College.

Berkeley (2-1, 0-0) quickly established itself in the opening minutes by scoring the first ten points of the contest, six of those points coming from three jumpers by center Elijah Craig (Seward Park/Brooklyn, NY). The Lightning (1-0, 0-0) would recover to pull within three, yet Berkeley continued to maintain their lead. With a 29-19 edge with 6:33 to play in the first half, Kaseem Williams (Boys and Girls/Brooklyn, NY) hit a three from the corner, and two buckets from Craig and Jose Stable (EBC HS for Public Service/Brooklyn, NY) ended a 7-0 run to increase the Berkeley lead to 17 at 36-19. The Lightning closed out the half on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to 10 at halftime 41-31.

The Knights would continue to lead the entire second half, but Lehman slowly and steadily crawled back into the game until the final dramatic closing seconds. With Berkeley clinging to a one-point lead, 71-70, with 6.4 seconds remaining, Lehman forced a turnover from the inbound play and converted two free throws on the other end to take their first lead of the game 72-71. A last second three-pointer fell short at the buzzer as the Knights were handed in crushing fashion their first loss after opening the season with two straight wins.

Stable led the Knights with 21 points while Craig added 13 points and pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds while sophomore Jovan Bovell (Jamaica/Jamaica, NY) chipped in 12 points for their efforts in the defeat.

Berkeley looks to rebound itself this Friday, November 18th, at 7PM against Lesley University (Mass) in the second game of the New England College Tournament. The Knights will face either host New England College or SUNY-Canton on Saturday, November 19th. Both games can be followed live online by clicking on the link http://www.sidearmstats.com/necnh/mbball