20 numbers to remember from the Berks boys basketball season

Here are 20 significant numbers to remember from the 2021-22 Berks boys basketball season:

.000002

That was the difference in power rating between Exeter (.634204) and Gov. Mifflin (.634206) at the end of the regular season. It’s what kept the Mustangs out of the Berks Conference playoffs and allowed the Eagles to qualify and make it to the semifinals — and nearly make the championship game. They came within seconds of getting there, before Josiah Jordan’s late basketball beat them 41-40 and sent Berks Catholic instead.

Exeter’s power rating (.634195) edge over Mifflin (.633455) at the time of the Berks Conference cutoff deadline was a little wider, but barely significant. It was the difference of another win by one of the Mustangs’ opponents or another loss by one of the Eagle’s.

1

Number of PIAA Tournament games won by Berks Conference teams. Reading High got the one, beating Downingtown West. Antietam, Berks Catholic, Exeter and Tulpehocken each went out in the first round. It was one of the poorest showings of the last couple decades.

2

District 3 championships won by Berks teams.

Reading High clobbered Warwick 68-43 for the Class 6A title, with Ruben Rodriguez scoring 21 points and Joey Chapman 19.

It was Reading’s second straight district title; the Red Knights had not gone back-to-back since 1976 and 1977, when Jim Gano was the coach and Henry Merritt (1976) and Steve Rosignoli (1977), respectively, were the leading scorers.

Berks Catholic dominated Middletown in the Class 4A game, winning 60-37 as Josiah Jordan had 17 points and Ryan Koch 16.

It was the Saints’ fourth district title and first since 2018, when Luis Garcia and Keba Mitchell led the way in a similarly dominant 44-26 win over Bishop McDevitt.

6

Number of 1,000-point scorers in Berks this season. Four are seniors, two are juniors.

Antietam’s Hector Tiburcio (1,426) led the way; he went over 1,000 late last season and finished as the No. 2 scorer in Mount Penn/Antietam program history, behind Fred Wittich (1,495, in 1972).

Tulpehocken’s Bryce Mellen finished with 1,066 points, the first to reach the milestone at his school in seven years, and one of just seven overall.

Danny Turchi (1,018) became the ninth at Oley Valley to reach the milestone.

Daniel Alcantara (1,056) reached 1,000 three weeks after Reading High teammate Ruben Rodriguez. They’re the Red Knights’ first set of 1,000-point teammates since Lonnie Walker and Khary Mauras hit that number during the 2015-16 season.

Rodriguez (1,291) and High Point’s Drew Hoffman (1,006) are juniors. Hoffman hit the milestone two years after his brother, Brad.

10

Number of 3-pointers Myles Grey knocked down Jan. 18 against Twin Valley, setting a Reading High record. That topped the program record of nine, set by David Lawson in 2006-07 against Conrad Weiser.

Gray tied the Berks Conference mark, shared by Tulpehocken’s Charlie Copp and Conrad Weiser’s John Richardson. Each accomplished that during the 1997-98 season.

The Berks record is 11, by High Point’s Ryan Vanderboegh in 2002-03.

High Point’s Nate Ehst hit 103 3’s in 28 games this season, topping the Berks record of 101, set by Copp.

15

Number of years since Tulpehocken last reached the PIAA Tournament, before cracking the field this season.

The Trojans beat Lancaster Catholic to finish third in the District 3 Class 3A Tournament. That was their 19th win, the most since 2007, when they set a program record for wins by going 25-6. That’s also the last time they made the state tournament.

19.8

Ruben Rodriguez’s Berks-leading scoring average, which tied for eighth-highest in Reading High history.

The Berks Player of the Year reached a number of milestones this season.

He topped 1,000 points in his first two seasons with the Red Knights, something no one else has done. (He played at Muhlenberg as a freshman.)

He’s just the fifth Reading player to lead Berks in scoring over the past 50 years, following Stu Jackson, David Lawson, Lonnie Walker IV and Wesley Butler.

His 593 points this season are fourth-most by a Reading High junior.

In three seasons he’s won three District 3 championships.

He did something else noteworthy this season; you’ll see that further down the list.

20

Number of wins for Antietam, something the Mounts hadn’t accomplished since 1994, and something they’ve done just twice since the program name changed from Mount Penn in 1990.

It is just the fifth 20-win season for the Mounts.

They also won their seventh division title, and first since 2015; played in their 10th district championship game, and third in four years; and reached the PIAA Tournament for the 19th time.

23

Berks Catholic’s win total, pretty remarkable considering the Saints went 6-11 last season. The 17-game improvement from one season to the next is one of the highest in Berks history.

Then again, that big leap wasn’t unexpected. The Saints lost five times by four points or less last season. Plus, they played four of their 17 games against Reading High and Wilson, two of the best teams in the state in 2021.

They returned their top six scorers from a year ago and were expecting big things. They finished 23-5, with three of the losses the Reading High, the third in the Berks Conference championship game.

23

Number of district championships for Reading High, a District 3 record.

Trinity is next with 18. Steel-High has 16, Harrisburg and Scotland 13 and York High and York Catholic 12.

The Red Knights have won three district titles in the past five seasons and four over the last seven. They have made it to five straight championship games.

23

Number of years since Exeter won more than one game in the District 3 playoffs and went to the state tournament. The Eagles won two of their four district games this season to finish seventh.

In 1999, the last time they did this, they went win, loss, win, loss in districts to finish sixth.

24

Berks Conference championships for Reading High.

That’s seven more than Kutztown, which is second on the list (but hasn’t won one since 1967, and hasn’t reached one since 1985).

The Red Knights had won just one of the previous titles.

The championship was the fifth for coach Rick Perez; only Snip Esterly (8) and John Silan (13) have more.

50

Points for Ruben Rodriguez in a single game, Jan. 19 vs. Daniel Boone.

That set a program record at Reading High, eclipsing the the record of 48, set by Buck Friedman in the 1918-19 season — more than 100 years ago. Only two Red Knights had ever topped 40: Donyell Marshall (43) and Brian D’Amico (42).

Fifty points in a 32-minute high school game is rare. It’s believed the last player to reach that in Berks is Oley Valley’s Seth Brizek, who scored 53 against Shenandoah Valley in 1992.

Rodriguez also scored 35 points in two other games; no Reading player has ever had three games of 35 or more points in the same season.

66

Number of years since Fleetwood won a division title.

The Tigers tied for first place in the second half of the 1978-79 season (when there was a first-half and second-half winner) but they lost the division tiebreaker that season. It wasn’t until this season, when they swept Wyomissing in a home-and-home series, that they laid claim to the Berks III title, their first division crown since 1956.

With their top two scorers, Jake Karnish and Aiden Soumas, returning next season the Tigers could make it two in a row.

72.1

Kutztown free throw percentage, tops in the league.

The Cougars weren’t a high-scoring team but they were good at the foul line, led by Grant Fitzgerald, who made 82.8 percent, and Xavier Goodman, who got to the line often and knocked down 76.5 percent of his attempts. His 114 made free throws were third-most in the league.

Gov. Mifflin’s Gerrell McNeil topped the league in free throw percentage (among those with 50 or more attempts); he was good on 92.6 percent.

187

Number of 3-pointers by Berks Catholic.

Snip Esterly said before the season this was the best-shooting team he has ever coached, and he was right. The Saints set a program record and led the Berks Conference with 187 3-pointers, averaging nearly 6.7 makes per game. That smashed the program record by 50.

Ryan Koch led the way with 64. Jack Miller hit 44, Aidan Sands 39.

The Saints’ total ranks fifth all-time among Berks Conference teams; only Muhlenberg (in 2020 and 2019), Reading High (in 2017) and Tulpehocken (in 1998) hit more.

Only eight Berks teams have averaged seven or more 3’s per game.

High Point made 258 3’s in 28 games this season, an average of 9.2 per game. Only Muhlenberg, which averaged 10.4 per game in 2019-20, has made more.

249

Wins by Reading High coach Rick Perez.

That’s two less than the program record of Jim Gano, who won 251 games in 10 seasons from 1971-81.

Perez, in his 11th season, set the program record for games coached earlier in the season; he finished with 322 games, 21 more than Gano, who had the record.

363

Wins needed by Matt Coldren to set the Wilson record, which he did Jan. 11, in a 51-48 win over Berks Catholic. That topped Reggie Weiss’ program mark of 362.

Coldren, who has coached at his his alma matter for 21 seasons, has 372 wins, which ranks fifth all-time in Berks. Only Snip Esterly, Lloyd Wolf, John Silan and Weiss (who also coached at Central Catholic) have more.

Only six in Berks have coached more games (549) than Coldren.

700

That was Exeter’s opponents’ winning percentage during the regular season, the highest of any team in District 3. That goes a long way in explaining how the Eagles could end up 13-15. Six of their losses came to eventual district champions: Berks Catholic (3), Reading High (2) and Chester.

769

Career wins for Snip Esterly.

That’s the most in Berks history and ranks seventh all-time in Pennsylvania history among boys basketball coaches.

This season Esterly beat four of the six guys ahead of him on the state list: Ron Insigner, Loyalsock; Tony Chapman, Holy Ghost Prep; Ken Bianchi, Abington Heights; and Larry Kostelac, Trinity.