Matzelle Scores 1,000th Point; Bears Come Up Short to Berkeley
BROOKLYN, NY – St. Joseph's was 10-0 all time in the regular season against Berkeley College and 8-0 at home. The undefeated streaks ended there though, as the Bears fell to the Knights, 70-69, Saturday night, in a HVMAC contest that came down to the final seconds. Number 20 St. Joseph's outscored the fourth ranked Knights by 11 in the second half, but was unable to overcome a 13 point deficit and dropped to 4-14 (2-1 HVMAC) on the year.
Berkeley has been climbing the USCAA rankings and headed into Brooklyn Technical High School winners of six straight by a 41.5 point average margin of victory. The two teams were number's one and two in the HVMAC and had met in four of the past five Conference Championship battles.
The game looked like it might be a blowout from the outset, with the Knights taking early leads of 7-1 and 13-4 in the first six minutes. Berkeley would bump that lead up to 12 halfway through the period as the Bears struggled offensively. Though St. Joseph's only shot 24% from the field in the first half, they didn't allow the game to get out of hand and went into the locker room down 12.
Coming out of the break, things didn't look much better for the Bears as they fell behind 13 with 15 minutes to play.
St. Joseph's trimmed the lead down to six before Johnny Mendez (Astoria, NY/St. John's Prep) and Thomas Karasinski (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) each hit a three to tie the game at 65-65 with 3:45 to play and bring the crowd to their feet.
If it hadn't been for the play of Kaseem Williams, Berkeley might not have survived the Bears comeback. After Karasinski tied the game, Williams hit a three on the next possession to give the lead right back to the Knights. Williams was 8-for-9 in the second half, scoring 17 of Berkeley's 32 second half points, including the last 11 of the game.
Donald Coleman (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth) knocked down a layup to bring the Bears back to within one with two and half minutes to play. Turnovers by both teams then gave the ball back to Berkeley at the 1:48 mark and the red hot Williams missed his first jumper of the half and Jan Rogowski (Woodside, NY/St. John's Prep) came down with a big rebound for St. Joseph's.
The Bears couldn't grasp the lead though, missing four shots inside of a minute to remain down one. With under a minute remaining, the Bears only had four fouls, meaning they would need to foul the Knights three times to send them to the free throw line. St. Joseph's elected to play defense and did so perfectly, causing a turnover on a shot clock violation with five seconds to play.
Inbounding from under the Knights' basket, Karasinski tried a full court pass, but over shot Coleman to give Berkeley the ball back and the Bears never had another possession.
The game was eerily similar to the 2010 regular season game played between these two squads as Berkeley had a second half double-digit lead and the Bears came back late. Even the score (70-69) was the same; the difference being St. Joseph's completed the comeback last year to earn the victory.
Coleman finished with a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season - his third in the past four games. Mendez chipped in with 13 points and Karasinski and Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) each had nine.
Senior Jon Matzelle (Maspeth, NY/St. Francis Prep) was a sub-plot in this game, as he entered with 1,000 career points in reach. At the 10:36 mark, Matzelle reached the milestone becoming just the sixth player under Coach Cocozello to do so. The last was Ervin Maddox in 2008-2009.
Williams led Berkeley with a game-high 21 points and Elijah Craig finished with a game-high 19 rebounds to go along with 12 points for a double-double. Jose Stable, Jovan Bovell, and Damir Redzepagic each had 10+ points for the Knights.
St. Joseph's continues its stretch of HVMAC opponents with a make-up game against Vaughn on Monday, January 31st at Brooklyn Technical High School. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm.