The bar is raised for Muhlenberg after win over Reading High (with power ratings update)

Matt Flowers spent the last week reminding his Muhlenberg players that he was on the last Muhls team to beat Reading High.

He can’t say that any longer.

Edwin Suarez scored a game-high 21 points and Alexavior Tomlinson hit the go-ahead basked in the final minute as the Muhls upset the Red Knights 63-61 Tuesday before an SRO crowd in Laureldale.

“I was so proud of our kids,” said Flowers, in his first season as Muhlenberg’s head coach after spending a decade as an assistant at Reading High. “They’ve been working all year. One of our goals was to beat Reading. They’re a a two-time state champ . . . you want to beat them, you want to be up there. Tonight we were the better team.”

The loss means Reading High likely will need to beat Wilson Wednesday at the Geigle to secure the No. 1 seed in the Berks Conference playoffs. The Red Knights (.792) hold a slim lead over Berks Catholic (.789) in the unofficial power ratings posted on the District 3 website early Wednesday.

Official numbers and playoff seeds will be announced Thursday.

Tuesday’s game was the first meeting between Flowers and his long-time boss and lifelong friend, Reading High coach Rick Perez.The Berks II champion Muhls (9-2, 17-5) trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter before putting on a furious rush over the final four minutes. They tied it 56-56 on Suarez’s follow with 3:16 left and took their first lead of the second half when Suarez put back another miss with 1:37 left to make it 58-56.

The Berks I champion Red Knights (10-1, 18-3) tied it twice more, the last on Joey Chapman’s drive with 48 second left that made it 60-60.

Tomlinson gave the Muhls the lead for good, scoring off a feed from J’Daniel Mosquera with 33 seconds left.

“I felt today we were aggressive,” Flowers said. “I felt we stayed poised in the fourth quarter when we were down. I was just very proud of how well these guys played.

“(When we were down) our leaders stepped up. It wasn’t really me talking in the huddle, it was our leaders: Tashiro Alexis, Alex Tomlinson, Edwin Suarez, Jarrett Jackson, Daniel Mosquera, Xzavion Robertson . . . those guys were talking in the huddle, (saying) ‘Stay together,’ ‘Stay poised,’ ‘We’re fine,’ ‘One possession at a time.’ “

The Red Knights had a couple chances to tie it but Ruben Rodriguez missed twice from the free throw line with 24 seconds left and Chapman made just 1-of-2 with 9.7 left to cut it to 62-61. Overall, the Red Knights were good on just 10-of-23 free throws.

Rodriguez got off a rushed 3-pointer just before the final buzzer but missed the mark.

Suarez, an All-Berks pick as a junior, scored eight fourth-quarter points and finished with a game-high 16 rebounds.

‘He needs to be in the conversation for (Berks) Player of the Year,” Flowers said. “He plays at that level. He showed that he is one of the elite players in this county and in this district.”

Mosquera finished with 12 points for the Muhls; Robertson had nine and Tomlinson eight.

The win should help clinch a spot in the District 3 Class 6A Tournament for the Muhls. They were No. 12 in the power ratings entering the game. The top 12 qualify.

It should also give them momentum heading into the Berks Conference playoffs, which begin Monday. The Muhls are battling Antietam for the No. 4 seed and first-round home game. According to unofficial numbers posted on the District 3 website early Wednesday Antietam maintains a small lead, but not all schools had posted Tuesday’s results.

“This is an expectation now, that we can play at that level,” Flowers said. “Today they raised the bar, and I thought they answered the call in the fourth quarter of just being tough.”

Rodriguez, an All-State pick last year as a sophomore, finished with 19 points. Xavier Davis, Daniel Alcantara and Myles Grey each had nine for the Red Knights.

Flowers scored 11 points in the Muhls’ 62-61 win at the Geigle in the 2000-01 season, when he was a senior.

Before Tuesday the Muhls were 2-68 all-time against the Red Knights. Their only other win in the series came in 1988.