GLENSIDE, Pa., Monday, Feb. 21, 2011-– The Arcadia University Men's Basketball Team (7-18 Overall 1-13 Commonwealth) forced 16 turnovers and sunk nine threes to deliver their second straight win and finish their season a two game winning streak as they defeated the Knights of Berkeley College, N.J. (3-15, overall) by a final of 73-56. The win gives Arcadia their second two game winning streak of the year and proves as a positive step toward the 2011-2012 season. Arcadia also gets their second straight home win of the season with tonight's victory. While it lacked the thrill of Saturday's upset over Commonwealth rival Elizabethtown, the Knights handled the visitors for all of regulation and the game did feature a trio of well-deserving performances from the team's graduating players with a pair of entertaining dunks from first-year Rashon Brock as an added bonus. For the third straight game, Damien Palantino 'GR led the Knights in scoring, finishing the final game of his career with a game high 20 points while senior Darrell Mills delivered a double-double with a season high 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights who also got seven rebounds and five assists from senior Alexis Alfonso '11. Junior Jason Thompson provided 14 points and four steals in the season finale.
For a change, Arcadia jumped out of the gate early posting a 16-4 lead at the 12:58 mark which started with a Jason Thompson '12 trey just 12 seconds into the game. Berkeley did not give up in the half, posting six points in the next four minutes to close the gap to six. Arcadia paced by an Alfonso three-pointer brought the lead back up to 10 but Berkeley once again jumped on Arcadia, this time to cut the lead to four. Mills came to life on offense to lead Arcadia's charge in the final four minutes with nine points giving Arcadia a 32-20 halftime lead.
Like in the first half, Arcadia used a strong offensive run, outscoring their opponent 12-8 in the first five minutes to put up a 46-28 advantage. A well balanced offense and stingy defensive play allowed Arcadia to keep their a double-digit lead and with the first of first-year Rashon Brock's two dunks Arcadia's lead increased to 22 with 3:53 to go in the game. The lead stayed in the high teens by the two-minute mark when Coach Pat Dorney elected to honor his three seniors: Palantino, Mills, and Alfonso by taking them out of the game to standing ovations from the coaches, fellow teammates, and the Arcadia fans. Brock highlighted the final two minutes with another highlight reel dunk and Arcadia closed out the game to win 73-56.
Palantino led Arcadia in scoring, putting up 20 points including five treys. Palantino officially finished his career with 963 points including 220 three pointers. Mills finished his collegiate career with his best performance of the season as he totaled up 18 points and pulled down a team leading 10 rebounds for a double-double. Alfonso finished the game with just three points, and admittedly surprised himself by pulling down seven rebounds including two on the offensive end, and topped that off by dishing out five assists in 25 minutes of play. Thompson finished the night with 14 points include three treys and also had four steals and six rebounds. Brock finished with seven points. Berkeley was led by Brandon Stewart's 14 points as well as Justin Savage's 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Arcadia ends the year with a 7-18 overall record, one more win than last year. The Knights will say goodbye to Palantino, Mills, and Alfonso, but will welcome back a core group that hopes to be joined by a strong recruiting class. Coach Dorney believes it is not inconceivable for the Knights to be one of the final four Commonwealth teams gearing for an upcoming semi-final game this time next year and neither does his staff or players.
