Basketball Team Falls in HVIAC Conference Tournament

In their first postseason tournament game Feb. 20, the Mighty Oaks basketball team was defeated by the dominant and talented #1-ranked Berkeley College Knights, 84-62.

ESF lost senior forward Sage Beemer to an injury only three minutes into the game. Without Beemer's defensive presence, the Knights shot efficiently from the field (47 percent) and caused havoc with their full-court press generating 17 first-half turnovers by ESF and giving Berkeley a 46-21 lead at halftime.

In the second half, the Mighty Oaks settled down offensively and outscored the Knights 41-38 and cutting the Berkeley lead to 15 with just under 5 minutes to play. The ESF team took better care of the ball, committing only four turnovers in the second half. The 25-point half time deficit was too much to overcome, however, as the ESF fell with the final score of 84-62.

Junior Ryan Caldwell notched his ninth double-double of the season, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore center Tyler Kuhn chipped in 13 points and six rebounds. Junior Dan Treadwell finished with 11 points.  Caldwell was also named to the HVIAC Tournament team.

Berkeley was led by Massiah Merritt who finished with 19 points. Johnnie Green finished with a double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Knights shot an efficient 46 percent for the game while ESF shot 3 percent. The Knights outrebounded the Mighty Oaks 44-33.

The Mighty Oaks concluded their season with the most wins in the program's short history and finished with a 7-14 overall record and 4-3 in HVIAC conference play. Berkeley College improved to 21-1 overall after clinching the conference title on Sunday with a 90-70 win over Vaughn and looks to defend its national championship title at the USCAA tournament next month.