Petersburg, VA - 7th seeded Johnson & Wales Charlotte rallied in the second half to defeat 10th seeded Berkeley College (NY) 80-73 in the opening round of the 2022 USCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championships on Monday night.

How It Happened:

• The Wildcats started quickly, leading 9-2 after three minutes as four different players made field goals.
• Berkeley answered with an 12-2 run of their own and took a three point lead, 14-11 four minutes later.
• The teams traded the lead back and forth over the next several minutes until two free throws from DeAndre Williams gave JWU their largest lead of half, 26-21.
• The Knights again pulled even and eventually took a two point lead at the break, 37-35.
• JWU again started the half well, scoring the first six points of the period, led by Fred Patterson's two buckets, to grab a four point advantage, 41-37.
• The Knights quickly answered with their own 6-0 spurt, reclaiming a slim two point lead. They would go on to extend the lead to as many as 8 at 53-45 on a Turray Bynum layup with 13:06 remaining.
• JWU whittled the lead down and eventually tied the score at 58 with just under ten minutes to play mainly from the charity stripe.
• The Wildcats eased ahead from that point, but the game remained close as a Dontrell Henry jump shot brought Berkeley to within a single point, 72-71 with 2:17 to play.
• A Zyrion Wilkins three, followed by a Fred Patterson layup on consecutive possessions pushed the JWU lead to 6, and the Wildcats closed out the game with free throws in the final seconds.

Key Stats:

• The Wildcats earned 30 trips to the free throw line, converting 23 of them, nine more than Berkeley.
• JWU committed just 10 turnovers in the contest.
• Fred Patterson led the way for JWU with 20 points and 9 rebounds.
• Zyrion Wilkins came off the bench to score 17 points and grab 7 rebounds.
• JWU improves to 15-11 overall while Berkeley drops to 14-5 overall.

Up Next:

The Wildcats advance to Tuesday afternoon's quarterfinal round where they will face #2 seed Penn State Wilkes-Barre at 2pm.