Unbeaten Wyomissing advances with ease to second round of PIAA Tournament (updated)
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Wyomissing turned out to be the Goliath Carver coach Joe Schreiber expected but his Engineers weren’t able to successfully play the David role Saturday in a PIAA Class 4A Tournament opener.
The unbeaten Spartans held the Engineers scoreless in the first quarter and went on to a 43-22 victory at Wyomissing.
Wyomissing (29-0) is now one win away from the best start in Berks history – Daniel Boone won its first 30 games in 1990 – and from joining the Blazers and the 1991 Gov. Mifflin Mustangs as the county’s only 30-game winners.
The Spartans will get that chance in Wednesday’s second round when they’ll play Neumann-Goretti, a 65-43 winner over Blue Mountain, site and time to be determined.
Wyomissing won its first two state playoff games last season before a 60-27 loss to North Catholic in the state quarterfinals.
Berks Player of the Year Amaya Stewart scored eight first-quarter points as the Spartans moved ahead 13-0 after one period. Stewart finished with a game-high 14. She did not play in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Karly Hyde hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter as Wyomissing extended its lead to 31-6 at the half.
All-Berks pick Annie McCaffrey finished with nine points for Wyomissing. All 13 players on the Wyomissing roster played and nine scored.
Savannah Hall, who averaged 20 points per game, did not score in the first half for Carver (8-11) and finished with a team-high eight points, six in the final quarter.
The 22 points was not a season-low for the Engineers; they were held to 19 in a loss to Imhotep Charter and to 21 in a loss to Freire Charter.
Wyomissing won its state opener in similar fashion last season against the District 12, fifth-place entry, Parkway Center City. The Spartans led 25-3 after one quarter and 47-13 at the half on the way to a 69-24 victory.
Carver Engineering and Science secured the fifth seed out of District 12, which encompasses the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues, after falling in the Pub League quarterfinals and beating West Catholic in a state play-in game.
Carver — the academic magnet school sitting on the edge of Temple’s campus — has produced DePaul University standouts and WNBA draft picks Brittany Hrynko and Keisha Hampton, who teamed up to lead the Engineers to a program-record 25 wins in reaching the state quarterfinals in 2008.
