There was the game before the game, the game within the game and finally the game itself.
You might say that the Golden Eagles won all three phases, which included some trash talking at the Sunday skills competition and some offhanded comments that KSU Tusc was the worst team in the field, and finally the No. 5 seeded Eagles (20-9) 96-88 win over No. 4 seed Berkeley College, NY (19-9).
They won the first two games by not participating in the pregame posturing and simply used it as bulletin board material if you will, to motivate themselves past the very talented Knights. Not, that they needed any extra motivation to win their first-ever USCAA quarter final game.
Braden Rostad buried bookend three-balls from the right corner, the second at the buzzer to bring the Eagles back to within 45-42 at intermission. Even though they jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the strength of Rostad's first trey of the game from the same spot, they trailed the Knights by as many as 11 points in the opening 20 minutes.
Down 39-31 with 3:38 left, the navy and gold outgunned Berkeley 11-6 to close the half and sank six of their tallies from the charity stripe but left points off the board by missing six other freebies. They closed out the scoring on a mini 5-0 run with Kameron Shockley getting a hoop just before Rostad's bomb found its mark.
The Eagles were rocked by a 10-2 Berkely run to begin the final half and they found themselves trailing 55-44 at the 16:56 mark. Things didn't look promising for the good guys, but they never waivered in the face of Berkeley's biggest lead of the final 20 minutes.
A key play came with 13:25 left to play, when Kyle Shockley leapt out of bounds to save an errant pass and flipped an underhanded scoop pass back into play to London Cobbs. Cobbs caught the ball in stride and cleared Berkeley's flat-footed defenders without a dribble and sailed to the basket for a lay in. He was fouled on the play and converted the free throw to draw the Eagles to within 62-57.
After a Knights basket made the score 64-57, the game Eagles stormed back with six straight points to whittle the lead to 64-63 with 11:27 showing. Two of the Eagles baskets came from James Roundtree, who came off the bench to scored four straight points on a muscled in basket and a pair of free throws.
KSU Tusc had turned the tide and knotted the game at 66-66 and again at 68-68 as they responded to every salvo by the Knights. With 8:33 left in the game, Cobbs gave the Eagles their first lead since 4-0, by converting a free throw for a 69-68 lead.
After weathering a multiple shot Knights possession, Rostad victimized them with the long ball again. This time he did it from the left angle for a 72-68 lead with 8:05 left. Then the dog fight began.
Leading just 72-70 after a Berkley hoop, Kameron Shockley made two free throws to increase the margin to 74-70. A minute later, he drove baseline and made a twisting reverse layup in heavy traffic for a 76-70 lead. And, he wasn't finished just yet. Vinny Roper cleared a rebound and fired a long outlet pass to Shockley for another basket and a 78-70 advantage with 5:45 left.
Berkeley responded and hacked into the lead and closed to 80-79 with 3:43 to play, as the Eagles started to tire a bit. But, Cobbs and Roper both rescued the Eagles with baskets to make the score 84-79 at the 2:50 mark.
Still, the Knights crept back and KSU Tusc had to find themselves again. They did. Holding an 86-83 lead with 2:07 left, the Eagles backed up the pregame barking by scoring eight straight points for an 11-point, 94-83 lead as they broke out the smiles.
After struggling from the free throw line for most of the game, the Eagles closed out the scoring making 8/10 tosses to end the game.
Kameron Shockley led all scorers with 27 points, making 8/11 field goals, was 10/13 from the free throw line, grabbed seven caroms, dished out five assists and blocked three shots. Cobbs scored 21 points on 7/12 shooting from the floor, sank 7/9 free throws, had five rebounds and four steals. Rostad added 16 points and made 5/11 three-point shots, had six boards and four assists. Kyle Shockley contributed 15 points to go along with five rebounds and had six assists.
For the game, the Eagles (21-9) had 10 more assists than the Knights, 23-13, and will play No. 1 seed Penn State Wilkes Barre (23-8) on Wednesday at 6 pm.
Kameron Shockley floats to the hoop and scored 27 points, while Braden Rostad knocked down five three-pointers.
London Cobbs scores two of his 21 points and Kyle Shockley works against pressure and scored 15 points against Berkeley.
(Photos by Rob Brindley)