Saints pick up a win, make a little history, against Abington Heights (updated with wins chart)
Ryan Koch couldn’t contain a wide smile that broke across his face when asked about the match-up zone he and his Berks Catholic teammates faced Saturday afternoon.
“If you’re a shooter, you love to play a zone,” Koch said. “That leaves a lot of space to get open shots.”
Koch, a 6-3 junior, can stroke it as well as anyone in the Berks Conference. He found open spots, buried five from beyond the arc, and scored a game-high 15 points as the Saints pulled away to beat Abington Heights 50-41 in a non-league game at Wolf Gymnasium.
Koch and the Saints (8-1) knocked down 11 3-pointers, including three in the fourth quarter as they broke open a tight game and secured a little piece of history for their coach, Snip Esterly.
The victory was the 754th of Esterly’s 33-year career, tying him for eighth place on the Pennsylvania’s all-time boys wins list. He matched the legendary Speedy Morris, who retired from Saint Joe’s Prep following the 2020 season.
“That’s pretty good company,” Esterly said of joining Morris, whom he coached against, and beat, early in the 2018-19 season.
From a historical perspective the game, and the win, were significant. It matched Esterly vs. Ken Bianchi, who has won 836 games, fourth-most in state history among boys basketball coaches, over his 47 seasons.
Esterly has now beaten five of the coaches on the Top Ten wins list: Loyalsock’s Ron Insinger, Holy Ghost Prep’s Tony Chapman, Trinity’s Larry Kostelac, Morris and now Bianchi.
He had lost three previous head-to-head match-ups against Bianchi. The win over Loyalsock came in this year’s season opener.
Bianchi, at 75, has a few years on the 63-year-old Esterly, though their resumes and philosophies are similar.
Bianchi has a PIAA championship, four final four appearances, a dozen District 2 championships and 16 league titles. Esterly has a PIAA title, six final fours, 12 District 3 titles and eight league titles.
They’re both old-school coaches who emphasize defense, sharing the ball and fundamentals. You don’t stick around this long or win that many championships without those kind of solid core beliefs.
Esterly just does it a little bit louder, sometimes.
“(He tells you to) just play hard defense,” Koch said. “Play with intensity. Play strong. And move the ball and get open shots.”
The Saints checked off all of those boxes against a Comets team that had won six of its first eight games. The defensive side of it made Esterly happy, especially the way the Saints performed over the middle two quarters when they allowed only four field goals and 11 points.
Abington Heights led 14-10 after the first quarter as Matt Show found some screens and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points. Josiah Jordan got after him at that point and didn’t allow him to score again until the fourth period.
| PA’s winningest boys coaches | ||
| *Ron Insinger | Loyalsock | 993 |
| *Tony Chapman | Holy Ghost Prep | 905 |
| *Aaron Straub | Elk Co. Catholic | 892 |
| *Ken Bianchi | Abington Heights | 836 |
| Don Graham | North Catholic | 801 |
| *Larry Kostelac | Trinity | 764 |
| Julius Prezelski | Forest City | 757 |
| *Snip Esterly | Berks Catholic | 754 |
| x-Speedy Morris | Saint Joe’s Prep | 754 |
x-wins as a high schools boys coach only
Jordan also came up with three steals, turning a pair of them into breakaway layups. The junior guard played perhaps his best all-around game of the season. He grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, had five assists and scored 12 points on just eight shots. He played under control and got his teammates involved.
“I thought Exeter was the best floor game he’s played,” Esterly said of a 56-51 win Thursday, “and today I thought he did even better.”
Jordan created open wing shooters by penetrating and dishing. That was the No. 1 goal against Abington’s zone.
“That’s probably one of the better match-ups we’ve ever played against,” Esterly said. “You’ve gotta dribble-penetrate to make two guys play one, then have a good kick-out pass, and I thought we did that today. That’s the best we’ve done (at that).”
Koch was one of the biggest beneficiaries. He hit four straight 3-pointers during the first and second periods and 5-of-8 overall. Jack Miller knocked down three 3’s and finished with nine points. Aidan Sands, who had 11 points, Aron Reinhart and Jordan each had one 3-pointer. Overall the Saints were good on 11-of-21 shots from beyond the arc, outstanding at any level.
“We have a lot of shooters,” Koch said. “Snip says it’s one of the best shooting teams we’ve ever had, and today it showed. We all were shooting good.”
The five 3’s matched a career-high for Koch.
“When you get that first one early, it kind of gets you going,” he said. “Last game I was struggling from the 3. Hitting a few early (today) helped a lot.”
It was still a one-possession game early in the fourth quarter before the Saints pulled away. Jordan’s 3-pointer a minute into the final quarter ignited a 17-5 run that put the game away. His steal and layup with 90 seconds left made it 48-33, and this one was history.
“This is the best we’ve played,” Esterly said. “It’s our best game of the year. Defensively we played well. . . they run some nice stuff, with a flex cut offense, and I thought we handled that really nicely.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Abington Heights | 14 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 41 |
| Berks Catholic | 10 | 13 | 8 | 19 | 50 |
| Abington Heights (6-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Show | 5-10 | 0-0 | 3-7 | 0 | 5 | 13 |
| Bessoir | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Selvinis | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Nealon | 3-10 | 0-0 | 3-10 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Florey | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Fedor | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kelleher | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Marion | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Hughes | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-38 | 1-1 | 8-23 | 3 | 23/24 | 41 |
| Berks Catholic (8-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Sands | 5-9 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| Jordan | 5-8 | 1-4 | 1-1 | 5 | 8 | 12 |
| Koch | 5-9 | 0-0 | 5-8 | 1 | 3 | 15 |
| Miller | 3-7 | 0-0 | 3-7 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Givens | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Rinehart | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Nein | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lawlor | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 19-36 | 1-4 | 11-21 | 11 | 17/19 | 50 |
Turnovers: Abington Heights 9, Berks Catholic 8.