Mounts make a statement — actually two — in playoff loss to Saints

The Antietam Mounts made a fashion statement during warm-ups Monday at Berks Catholic.

Later, they made a basketball statement.

They showed everyone inside Wolf Gymnasium that they should not to be so easily dismissed.

Four days after being disrespected by the league’s coaches they played like a worthy playoff qualifier, pushing the Saints for most of three quarters before fading in a 66-52 Berks Conference quarterfinal loss to second-seeded Berks Catholic.

“They came to play,” said BC coach Snip Esterly. “I don’t know that at times we matched their intensity.”

The Mounts (19-4) had a reason to be fired up. The Berks IV champs felt slighted after being dropped from a No. 4 seed they felt they earned to No. 7.

They took the floor Monday wearing white T-shirts with the words: “Small Schools Matter” printed across the front. It was a slap at the BCIAA’s playoff seeding system, long a tinderbox.

Two years ago the league gave coaches the chance to challenge the seeds, which are initially generated by power ratings, an objective measure.

The league introduced a subjective element into the equation and the Mounts paid the price.

By the numbers, they should’ve had a home game against the No. 5 seed, Muhlenberg. Instead they were sent to Berks Catholic.

The outcome likely would’ve been no different against the Muhls in Stony Creek. Still, it came off as a bad look for the league.

“In what realm do teams make the playoffs, and then coaches get to determine who you play in the playoffs?” asked Mounts coach Mike Green rhetorically. “That makes no sense.”

Mounts senior Hector Tiburcio said that at first he and his teammates were “bummed out” by the drop in seeding but soon refocused on the task at hand.

“We were looking forward to a county game at home,” he said. “But we put it behind us.”

Well, maybe not entirely behind them. They came out with intensity and purpose and were in a one-possession game after Tiburcio dropped a 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the third period.

“That was definitely in the back of my mind,” he said of the ‘dis’. “That put a little smoke to the fire. We wanted to come out and prove to people that we deserved that four seed. We earned it.”

Tiburcio seemed hellbent on proving it. He was a holy terror, attacking the paint or stepping back for 3-pointers. He had 14 of the Mounts’ 18 first-half points and finished with a game-high 26.

“He’s good,” said Berks Catholic’s Aidan Sands, tasked with guarding him. “He’s fast, he’s physical.”

Saints coach Snip Esterly was equally impressed.

“I’ll give all the credit in the world to Hector,” he said. “He’s a nice player. He’s possibly All-County material.

“No one’s done that to us this year, no one, except for (Muhlenberg’s Edwin) Suarez, or Ruben (Rodriguez of Reading High).”

The Saints (19-3) were up 10 at the half and pushed it to 14 in the first minute of the third quarter.

That’s when the Mounts made their second statement. They got consecutive 3’s from Josh McKoy and Tiburcio to ignite a 13-2 run that cut the BC lead to 34-31.

The Saints punched back. Senior Aidan Sands, after a sluggish first half, seemingly couldn’t miss in the second. He hit his final eight shots, was 9-of-11 in the second half and finished with a career-high 21 points, 19 after intermission.

The Mounts played their best but the Saints, with their array of shooters and their balance on offense — Ryan Koch finished with 14 points, Josiah Jordan with 13 and and Jack Miller with 11 — were just too much to handle.

They took Antietam’s best shot, then responded with one of their own. They steadily pulled away in the fourth quarter, building their lead to 17 at one point.

Berks Catholic advances to a Wednesday semifinal against Exeter, a team it beat twice in league play; they’ll play for a third time at Santander Arena at 6.

“We knew they were going to come out excited, and energized, because of the season (they’ve had),” Sands said of the Mounts. “We just had to play like the big game that it was.”

Both teams have plenty of big games ahead. Both enter the District 3 Tournament as a No. 1 seed, Berks Catholic in Class 4A, Antietam in 2A.

“(This game) really proved to us that we can really run with anybody if we play our brand of basketball,” Tiburcio said. “That was kind of a wake-up call (for us, like): ‘Hey, we’re really a good team; we can do something here.’ That felt good.

“If we play like that during districts I think we come home with a district title, for sure.”