The King's College Men's Basketball team met Berkeley College on Saturday in an HVIAC conference match-up at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn. The two teams had not faced each other in two years after the 2020-21 season was shut down due to the covid pandemic.
Junior Mali Binen got things started for the Lions when he nailed a three-pointer one minute into the game to give King's a 3-1 lead. The two teams battled back and forth over the next seven minutes as Berkeley built a small lead. A Binen layup made it 11-10 Berkeley at 13:30. Some Berkeley buckets by Kenny Pitt and Shkelqim Bajrami put the Knights ahead 17-10 about midway through the first half. Berkeley built their lead to 22-12 but King's freshman Morten Hansen made a pair of free throws and Andrew Pelaschier made a layup to cut the Berkeley lead to 22-16 with 5:22 to go in the half. Junior Jimmy Nguyen made a layup with 2:16 left, but Berkeley would carry a 30-19 lead into halftime.
Berkeley stormed out of the locker room for the second half and added 6 more points for a 36-19 margin with Foday Saccoh, Tristan Polnitz, and Daquan Jackson providing the scoring. But two Binen layups sandwiched a Nguyen three-pointer as Jordan Bishop followed with a layup and King's was back in the game at 36-28. Two more layups and a pair of free throws by Bishop cut Berkeley's lead to 39-33. Unfortunately, the six-point deficit was as close as the Lions could get as the minutes ticked away in the second half. Berkeley's Pitt put his team up 52-41 with a layup. After a King's time-out, Binen converted three free throws to cut the lead to 52-45. But Berkeley stretched their lead to 60-45 with under a minute to play. Nguyen made a layup with 10 seconds to go, but as the buzzer sounded King's fell short as Berkeley came out with a 61-49 HVIAC victory.
Binen led the Lions in scoring with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists. Nguyen had 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. Jordan Bishop added 10 points, 8 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals, and a block. Tyler Bowens had 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Cade Nicholson had 2 rebounds and a steal, and Andrew Pelaschier helped with 2 points, 2 rebounds, a steal, and a block.
The loss dropped King's record to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in the HVIAC conference.
Next Up: The Lions travel to Long Island on Saturday, February 12 to take on Five Towns College in HVIAC league action.