FINAL SCORE: #1 Berkeley College Knights 82, #4 Warren Wilson College Owls 66

FINAL SCORE: #1 Berkeley College Knights 82, #4 Warren Wilson College Owls 66

RECORDS: Berkeley (23-1); Warren Wilson (18-14)

LOCATION: Penn State Fayette Main Arena, Uniontown, PA

IN BRIEF: The top-seeded Berkeley College NY Knights defeated the #4 Warren Wilson Owls Friday night in semi-final action at the USCAA Men's Division II Tournament by a score of 82-66.  Massiah Merrett led the Knights with 26 points off 8 of 14 shooting in the victory.

ON THE COURT

• Both teams got off to a slow start in the contest, as the first points were not scored until the 17:26 mark when Warren Wilson's Tyler Triplett scored his namesake, follow by a Kenrick Nesbit layup at 16:52 to make it an early 5-0 Owl lead.
• Berkeley then scored 8 straight to take the lead at 15:11.
• After a Nesbit three-pointer tied the game at 8 at the 14:56 mark, the Knights went on an 8-2 run to take the lead 16-10 at 12:34. 
• During that run, the Owls went scoreless for over three minutes of game clocked before Sean Gribble's layup made it 16-12 at 11:09.
• A Keenan Langston and-one gave the Knights a 21-14 lead at the 7:41 mark, although Warren Wilson was able to cut into that lead with a pair of layups to make it a three-point ballgame with 6:35 to go in the half.
• From there, Berkeley used an 11-1 run to go up 13 points at 4:10 to go in the half.
• The teams swapped scores the rest of the way in, with Berkeley securing an 11-point halftime lead at the half, 37-26.
• Berkeley's Massiah Merritt opened the second half with a three pointer to make it 40-26 Knights.
• Berkeley would extend the lead to 18 over the next several minutes, as two more triples by Tasheen Carrow and Merritt made the score 46-28 at 16:34.
• Warren Wilson was able to mount a run, cutting their deficit to single digits at 47-38 with 12:19 remaining in the contest, but the Knights responded to push their lead to 20 points with 6:21 to play 65-45.
• The Owls would get no closer than 13 points in the final minutes of the contest, with Berkeley winning by a final score of 82-66.

BEHIND THE BOXSCORE

• Berkeley's Massiah Merriett was the top-point scorer for the game, tallying 26 on 8 of 14 shooting, including hitting 5 of 10 from distance.
• Keenan Langston and Stephon Jennings were also in double-digits for the Knights, scoring 22 and 16, respectively.
• Kenrick Nesbit and Timmy Johnson each scored 11 for the Owls, with Nesbit also adding 8 boards.
• Berkeley had a slight rebounding edge in the game with 42, compared to Warren Wilson's 37.
• The Owls bench outscored the Knight reserves 40-9 for the game.

NEXT UP

#1 Berkeley College NY advances to the Men's Division II national title game where they will face the winner of #2 Central Penn College Saturday at 3:15 in Main Arena.  Warren Wilson ended its season with an 18-14 record.