Career night by Josiah Jordan lifts Berks Catholic over York Catholic

Josiah Jordan seems to have taken his game to a new level over the last few weeks. He scored 21 points in a key road win at Trinity 10 days ago, came back with a career-high 27 last week against Muhlenberg and topped it again Wednesday against York Catholic.

The Berks Catholic junior guard scored a career-high 30 points, including 17 in one quarter, in a key 69-52 non-league victory in York.

The win was the sixth straight for the Saints (14-2), who remain No. 1 in the District 3 Class 4A power ratings.

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Fighting Irish (13-3), who are ranked No. 2 in Class 3A.

Jordan, who is averaging a team-leading 17 points, crammed 17 points into the third quarter to help the Saints break from a 25-25 halftime tie to lead by 17 going into the final quarter.

“That kid is just a great all-around player,” Saints coach Snip Esterly of Jordan. “He comes to play every night, and not only offensively. Defensively he never takes a break.”

Jordan hit three 3-pointers and had seven baskets overall in the third quarter, when the Saints broke out for 30 points.

Ryan Koch hit a pair of 3’s and scored eight points in the quarter.

Jordan had never had as many as three 3’s in a game.

Despite a road win against a quality opponent Esterly was not happy with his team’s defense. York Catholic junior guard Luke Forjan went off for 30 points, a rare scoring display against an Esterly-coached team.

“We had no one to stop him . . . nobody wanted to stop him,” Esterly said. “He posted up, he took it to the basket, he got inside on us . . . he did whatever he wanted to do. It was a very disappointing effort on defense tonight. We just didn’t want to play tonight defensively.”

Forjan had 12 points in the second quarter as the Fightin Irish erased a 10-point deficit and came back to tie the game. He had 19 at the half. He made 15 field goals and only went to the foul line four times.

Only three other York Catholic players scored.

Koch finished with 13 points for the Saints and Jack Miller has 12.

Most of Jordan’s buckets came on spin moves to the basket.

“They couldn’t stop him going to the basket,” Esterly said.