Men's Basketball Gameday: Bears vs. Berkeley

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Coming off a thrilling 80-77 victory over sibling rivals St. Joseph's (L.I.), the Bears (5-5) look to move back over .500 with a win against HVIAC rivals Berkeley College (5-4) on Friday, December 27th at the Barclays Center with tip-off set for 3 p.m.

Live Coverage

Watch the game live at http://www.sjcbears.com/sports/mbkb/live-video with Sitesh Shah calling the action or follow the action online with live stats available at http://www.sjcbears.com/livestats. Updates can also be found via @SJCBears on Twitter and Instagram.

Series History / Last Meeting

The two schools have met 22 previous times with St. Joseph's holding a 13-9 edge in the all-time series. However, Berkeley has won the last six meetings including a 71-67 victory in the HVMAC Tournament Championship Game last season at The College of New Rochelle.

After erasing an 18-point deficit and building a four-point lead with five minutes to play, St. Joseph's fell, 71-67, in the 2013 HVMAC championship game on February 17th.

With the game tied at 67-67 and less than a minute to play, Jovan Bovell took a rebound and dribbled coast-to-coast for a layup that put the Knights up two with 37 seconds remaining. On the Bears' next possession Bovell secured a rebound and was fouled, sinking both at the line for the final difference.

St. Joseph's placed four players in double figures led by David Louison's game-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Michael Megafu finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds and Ian Duff and Matt O'Neill each contributed 13 points each.

The Bear Facts

Last Time Out: St. Joseph's recorded a thrilling 80-77 victory against archrivals St. Joseph's (L.I.) in a back-and-forth tilt that saw eight ties and 11 lead changes. The win was the second straight over the Golden Eagles in the series and clinched a sweep for Brooklyn for the first time in the six-year history of the rivalry. The Bears were paced by Megafu who recorded his team-leading fifth double-double of the year pouring in a team-high 27 points while corralling 10 boards.

The Bears look to continue their recent stretch of good play having won three out of their last four games and with a win today would move over .500 for the first time this season. St. Joseph's looks to defeat their HVIAC rivals for the first time since January 23, 2010 as they look to win their first HVIAC regular season title since the 2009-10 season. The Bears also look to get back to the USCAA National Tournament coming into today's action ranked No. 17 in the first Division I coaches' poll while the Knights check in at No. 11 in the Division II poll.

St. Joseph's continues to be led by the duo of Megafu and Louison who rank No. 1 and No. 2 on the team in scoring with 14.1 and 13.9 points per game, respectively. The frontcourt mates have teamed up for nine double-doubles with Megafu, this week's AD3I and HVIAC Player of the Week, leading the team with five on the year. The duo also helps the Bears on the glass with Megafu averaging a team-high 9.2 boards per game (No. 4 in HVIAC) while Louison brings down 8.7 caroms per game (No. 5 in HVIAC) of his own.

Helping orchestrate the St. Joseph's offense is junior Vernon Maddox who leads the team and the HVIAC with 4.7 assists per game and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league at 2.2. O'Neill rounds out three Bears averaging double figures in points on the year with 10.0 points per game. The sophomore is averaging 14.6 points per game over St. Joseph's last five games and leads the team averaging 2.2 thefts per game.

Freshman Francisco Escobedo was named the HVIAC Rookie of the Week after hitting two crucial free throws with 17 seconds left that gave the Bears an 80-77 lead over St. Joseph's (L.I.) that they held on to for the victory. The guard scored six points as a reserve, shooting 4-of-4 from the charity stripe, grabbed three rebounds and handed out an assist.

The Knightly News

Last Time Out: Berkeley suffered a 95-71 defeat to King's College (Pa.), their third in a row, on Sunday, December 15th. Keenan Langston led the Knights attack with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Berkeley, a participant in last year's USCAA Division II National Tournament, comes into today's game looking to find their groove having lost three games in a row after starting the season 5-1. The Knights defeated Vaughn College, 66-59, in their lone HVIAC game to date.

The Knights are led offensively by Keenan Langston, a three-time HVIAC Rookie of the Week, who averages a team-high 20.1 points per game (No. 2 in HVIAC) and has reached double figures in all nine games.

Also averaging double figures in points are Richard Rampersad who averages 10.6 points per game primarily off the bench and two-time HVIAC Player of the Week Danzel White who contributes 10.3 points per game.

Did You Know?

Either St. Joseph's or Berkeley has been crowned the HVIAC regular season champion each of the last nine years. The winner of the annual regular season meeting between the two schools has gone on to clinch the regular season conference title in each of the nine seasons.

Team Comparison

Bears	Nickname	Knights
5-5 (1-0)	Record	5-4 (1-0)
HVIAC	Conference	HVIAC
Roster | Schedule | Statistics	Team Info	Roster | Schedule | Statistics
Michael Megafu (14.1)	Top Pts.	Keenan Langston (20.1)
Michael Megafu (9.2)	Top Reb.	Elijah Craig (9.4)
Vernon Maddox (4.7)	Top Ast.	Jovan Bovell (4.7)
66.7 (+6.0)	Scoring	75.9 (+0.7)
38.4%	FG %	45.3%
61.3%	FT %	59.3%
26.7%	3FG %	30.3%
38.8 (-5.8)	Rebounds	43.1 (+5.4)
12.7	Assists	14.7
13.0 (+6.6)	Turnovers	19.4 (-4.2)
9.2	Steals	7.4
5.1	Blocks	4.8