If the Vaughn College Warriors are to win the Hudson Valley Men’s Athletic Conference championship, they will have to go through Berkeley College.

It didn’t look that way initially, but defending champion and top seed Berkeley survived a game effort from host Albany Pharmacy to win Saturday’s first semifinal, 91-83. It was an unexpectedly difficult game for Berkeley, which did not play its best game but had enough to defeat fourth-seeded Albany. Berkeley defeated Albany by 37 points Jan. 28.