Feels like the first time for these Red Knights (updated)

It seems as though Reading High wins the Berks Conference basketball championship every year, but that’s simply not true. The last two years the trophy ended up in West Lawn. It’s been three long years since the Red Knights last held that shiny thing aloft.

Joey Chapman and Daniel Alcantara were freshmen who saw a few minutes of action when Reading High beat Berks Catholic for the 2019 title. Ruben Rodriguez wasn’t even in high school back then; in fact, he wasn’t even in the Reading School District.

Maybe that’s why their 51-35 victory Friday over Berks Catholic before 3,400 at Santander Arena felt a little more special to the Red Knights. For them, it was a brand new experience, not just the 24th in a long line of championships.

“This means more to me, because it’s my first one,” said Rodriguez, a junior guard who played his freshman season at Muhlenberg before returning to Reading last year, “and to do it in Santander feels great because last year we were at BC (with limited fans in attendance). It’s better to win it here.”

Rodriguez enjoyed the night as much as anyone, scoring a game-high 22 points, including nine in the fourth quarter to help turn the tide back toward the top-seeded Red Knights (22-3). They controlled the opening half and stretched their lead to 21 points when Rodriguez took a long outlet pass from Myles Grey and dropped in a bucket three minutes into the third quarter.

The Red Knights were rolling, dominating the boards, running the floor and, most impressively, shutting down Berks Catholic’s potent offense. The second-seeded Saints (20-4) have all kinds of shooters, but it took them a while to warm to the pace and the big arena. They were just 1-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half and headed to intermission with only 12 points on the board.

“The first two times we played them we didn’t fully execute our game plan and they scored more points than they should’ve,” Rodriguez said. “Here, it felt good to see them score a sub-10 (fewer than 10 points in a quarter). We had two of those in the first half. I feel nobody can beat us when we’re playing like that.”

The Red Knights look unbeatable at times, their suffocating defense igniting their fullcourt offense.

At other times they have lapses, let off the gas a little, and that nearly cost them Friday. The Saints, after getting boat-raced for the first 2 1/2 quarters, settled in, slowed the pace, and made a run of their own. They scored nine straight at one point and ended the third quarter on a 14-1 run.

When Aidan Sands opened the fourth quarter with a basket Reading’s lead was down to 36-30.

“We finally started to hit, and that’s what brought us back in the game,” said Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly.

Before you knew it the Red Knights were off and running again. Rodriguez hit a couple free throws, followed with a three-point play off transition and Reading stretched its lead back to 15 points with six minutes to go. Game over.

“We knew they were going to try to give us a punch, so we were just trying to be able to take their punches and keep our lead going,” Rodriguez said. “Even when we lost (momentum), we were trying to stay relaxed.”

The Saints were held to a season-low point total; they had been held below 50 only three other times. Defense was a point of emphasis for Red Knights coach Rick Perez. Even though his team won both the regular season meetings handily he wasn’t happy to see Berks Catholic finish with 70 points the last time they met.

“I thought today, they followed the game plan, especially in the first half,” he said. “We had to take a little more pride because we gave up 70 points last time. They’re tough team to defend, so we just did a great job staying in front of them, getting out on shooters and rebounding the basketball, leaving them to one shot and done.”

Josiah Jordan, the Saints’ leading scorer, was the point of emphasis for Reading’s defense. He can take a game over and break a defense down with his moves to the basket. Amier Burdine, who drew the opening assignment on him, and his teammates made sure to close off those lanes to the basket. Jordan finished with 12 points, half of them from the foul line. He got just four shots in the second half.

The Saints were good on only 4-of-17 shots from beyond the arc and got few second chances; they were out-rebounded 9-27 and managed only four offensive boards, none in the first half.

“They’re good – they’re very good,” Esterly said of the Red Knights. “There’s not a team that has better speed or strength than them. I told (our) guys: ‘You’re not gonna face anybody like that in districts.’ “

It should be noted that the Red Knights were also held to a season-low scoring title, but Perez didn’t mind. It’s playoff time and defense will decide most games going forward. He knows he can put five guys on the floor who understand that.

“You know, if you can only win in one way, you’re gonna be in trouble later on down there,” he said. “So I think we proved that we’re able to win at many different levels, in many different ways with many different people.”

	1	2	3	4	Final
Berks Catholic	9	3	16	7	35
Reading High	16	12	8	15	51

Saints (20-4)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Sands	2-12	0-0	0-4	0	6	4
Jordan	3-11	6-8	0-2	2	4	12
Koch	4-11	3-4	2-6	0	3	13
Miller	1-3	0-0	1-3	0	3	3
Givens	0-4	0-0	0-1	0	1	0
Lawlor	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Reinhart	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	2	0
Cacchione	1-1	0-0	1-1	0	2	3
Nein	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	2	0
Totals	11-43	9-12	4-17	3	23/27	35

Red Knights (22-3)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Burdine	2-4	4-4	0-0	0	3	8
R. Rodriguez	8-14	6-8	0-1	3	8	22
Grey	2-8	0-0	0-2	2	4	4
Davis	2-2	2-4	0-0	0	4	6
Alcantara	2-12	0-0	1-6	1	7	5
Chapman	0-3	1-2	0-0	1	3	1
Rodriguez	2-5	0-0	1-3	0	2	5
Walker	0-2	0-0	0-1	1	4	0
Totals	18-50	13-18	2-13	8	35/29	51

Turnovers: Berks Catholic 14, Reading High 11.