O'Neill's Career-High 27 Falls Short as Berkeley Edges Out Bears in Final Seconds

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Freshman Matt O'Neill (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) tallied a career- and game-high 27 points, including a trifecta that tied the game with 19 seconds left, but the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's basketball team couldn't hold off Berkeley College, falling 76-74 on Saturday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

After O'Neill's game-tying trifecta brought about the 10th tie in the back-and-forth battle between the two Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference rivals who have combined for the last seven league titles, a Jose Stable fadeaway jumper with three seconds remaining put the Knights back on top for good.

The Bears (10-10, 1-1 HVMAC) fall to .500 for the first time since November and have dropped last five meetings to the Knights (10-6, 5-0 HVMAC) who remain undefeated in league play this season.

O'Neill finished the game shooting 9-of-21 including five three-pointers for his second-straight career-high game. The freshman also dished out four assists and grabbed five rebounds in defeat.

Four Bears finished in double figures with David Louison (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) added 14 points and grabbing five rebounds. Senior Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) added 10 points and pulled down nine caroms for a near double-double and Vernon Maddox (Staten Island, NY/St. Peters) also chipped in 10 points coming off the bench.

Stable led five Knights in double figures with 17 points, all coming in the second-half after not playing the first, and finished 6-for-6 shooting. Center Elijah Craig added 15 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and rejected six shots. Kaseem Williams chipped in 12 points and Danzel Whyte contributed 11 points.

The visitors held an eight-point advantage, 30-22, with 6:43 remaining in the first until the Bears answered with a 10-2 run to knot the game. After two more ties, an O'Neill trifecta at the buzzer sent the Bears into the lockers leading 43-40.

The Bears opened the second half on a 7-0 run to build a 50-40 lead, which the Knights slowly chipped away at, overtaking the Bears at the midway point of the half and used a 12-1 run over four minutes to build a 69-62 lead with seven minutes to play.

But St. Joseph's countered with seven points unanswered to knot the game at 69-all at the 3:28 mark on an O'Neill fast-break layup off a full court feed from David Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King).

A Stable trey with two minutes remaining gave the Knights a 74-71 lead which they clung to until the final seconds. The Bears missed three attempts at equalizing the game from distance, before O'Neill drained one from the deep left corner to ignite the large crowd for Alumni, Family and Friends Day.

With the score tied 74-74 and Knights with possession, Berkeley was content with the final shot and Stable took over, driving to the foul line then stepping back and was closely defended, but still managed to knock down the shot from 17 feet. With no timeouts remaining, the Bears could only manage a desperation shot from the full length of the court, which hit the top of the backboard.

Berkeley finished the more efficient squad, connecting on 45 percent of their attempts (27-of-60) while the Bears hit for 37 percent (25-of-68) but landed 11 triples. Although Knights made two more miscues, 17-15, Berkeley made the most of their opportunities holding a 25-9 edge in points off turnovers.

St. Joseph's will resume a four-game stretch of conference games, returning to action on the road on Wednesday, January 30th traveling to Bronxville, N.Y. to square off against Sarah Lawrence College in a 7 p.m. HVMAC tilt.