The third time wasn’t the charm for the Berkeley Carroll Lions. The Boys Varsity basketball team fell to top seeded Dwight in the ACIS semifinals 68-58 Tuesday at the Al Smith Recreation Center in Lower Manhattan.

Despite getting swept by their opponents in the regular season, the Lions weren’t intimidated and got off to a strong start jumping out to an early 7-4 lead forcing Dwight to call for time. Coming off a memorable 34 point showing in a 13-point home quarterfinal victory over Packer, senior leading scorer Jason Lewis again had the hot hand torching their bigger opponents for 13 early points including three long treys.

Following a dunk by Dwight center Maleik Patterson, Lewis’ off balance heave from the corner hit nothing but the bottom of the net to give the Lions a 23-19 lead at the end of one quarter making his teammates believe they could pull off the upset.

But a strong surge by the bigger home team on the neutral court gave them the edge in the play. Beginning to make adjustments to an aggressive Berkeley D which forced several turnovers, the top seeds took advantage of Patterson inside. Getting the ball into the big man, it forced several double teams leaving their pair of senior guards open for uncontested jumpers and lay-ups.

In particular, No.10 hurt the Lions with an array of strong finishes near the basket which turned the tide. Patterson also netted three easy buckets from in close including a jam to help finish a 13-3 run. BC junior Giancarlo Hirsch sliced it to 32-28 before the half.

With Lewis nursing an injured shin which prevented him from getting hang time in the second half, Dwight slowly built a double digit lead on the strength of No.25 who scored everyone of his points in the final 16 minutes. Most came from in close and he also did the Lions in from the charity stripe converting at least seven of 11.

Trailing by 13 midway through the final quarter, it looked like the fourth seeded Lions would go quietly but a strong finish from junior Phil Seay allowed them to hang around. The shooting guard netted more than half his team-high 22 in the fourth which included three trifectas.

Unfortunately for Seay and teammate Hirsch who heated up late to get into double figures for a second consecutive day, it came a little too late. Forced to put Dwight on the line, they ran out of time but not before senior Danny Halper scored his final basket from beyond the arc drawing some cheers from the Lion faithful. It was a fiery Halper who earlier in the period got after his teammates to suck it up with only six minutes to go.

Lewis also left to a nice ovation as his four-year Varsity career of more than 1,250 points came to an end. Senior Sam Adler’s career also came to a disappointing conclusion as did Max Peskowitz.

They had nothing to be ashamed of as they gave Coach Bob Merrill everything they had. On this day, it just wasn’t enough against what proved to be a better team who advanced to the ACIS championship round.

Dwight will take on the winner of last night’s other semi between Friends Seminary and Staten Island Academy at Poly Tech later tonight.