Basketball season off to a fast, and successful, start for Berks Conference teams

Only half of the Berks Conference’s 18 teams were on the court Friday for the opening night of boys basketball but it was an eventful night nonetheless.

Schuylkill Valley’s Taylor Grim earned his 100th coaching victory as the Panthers held off Garden Spot, 59-57.

First-year coaches Kevin McFarland, at Hamburg, and Nate Miller, at Tulpehocken, picked up victories.

Daniel Boone snapped a 26-game losing streak, beating Pottsgrove 70-62.

And Wilson’s Aidan Melograna made his first start memorable, scoring a game-high 17 points in a 46-34 win over Pottsville at Martz Hall.

Overall, Berks teams went 8-1 — the lone loss coming when Conrad Weiser beat Antietam 54-51 in the lone head-to-head match-up.

The league’s other nine teams will open their seasons over the next 10 days in an unusual staggered start after the PIAA shortened preseason practice by a week. The Dec. 2 start — eight days earlier than last season — forced coaches and players to get ready a little quicker.

Some programs chose to delay their starts.

Reading High opens Tuesday at home against Central York.

Berks Catholic and Exeter, expected to slug it out in Division II, don’t open until Friday, Dec. 9, both at the Exeter Tip-Off Tournament.

Wyomissing, expecting it’s football team again to make a run at a state title, doesn’t open until Dec. 12. The PIAA Class 3A championship game is Dec. 10; the Spartans will be in it if they beat Neumann-Goretti Saturday.

Others get started a little sooner.

Oley Valley opens Saturday afternoon against Salisbury.

Gov. Mifflin head coach Brian Wrobel makes his debut Monday at home against Cedar Crest. A tribute for former coach Kyle Conrad, who died in September, is planned.

Twin Valley first-year coach Matt Herbener gets going Tuesday at Middletown; Fleetwood opens the same night, against Weiser. Kutztown’s opener is Dec. 10, at Upper Perkiomen.

Melograna, a senior, waited a long time for his first start — and made the most of it. He hit three 3-pointers and scored 12 points in the first half as the Bulldogs pulled out to leads of 11-3 and 24-16 after the first two quarters.

Madyx Gruber and Cleveland Harding Jr. each had nine points for Wilson.

Melograna hit a team-high 30 3-pointers off the bench last season but got strongeer and developed an all-around game in the offseason. He was named the Most Improved Player in the West Reading Summer League.

“He’s really worked hard in the offseason,” said Wilson coach Matt Coldren. “He’s committed that he wants to play in college. He has made himself a pretty good shooter, and now we’re trying to make him do more things. It’s important for us to have him make shots.”

At Robesonia, Brady McKee had 17 points and Donovan Gingrich scored 15 points, hitting 7-of-7 shots at the line, including four in the final quarter. McKee had nine points in the first quarter to help the Scouts build an 18-11 lead.

The Mounts used a balanced scoring attack to get back in the game and take a two-point lead in the fourth quarter; they got 14 points from Noah Archambault, 11 from Javon Hollis and 10 from Jowen Reyes-Rodriguez.

At New Holland, Mark Rajnath scored a career-high 25 points as Schuylkill Valley beat Garden Spot. The win made Grim, in his 11th season, just the second coach in program history to record 100 victories.

At Pottsgrove, Brendan Gaines scored a game-high 22 points, 19 in the second half, as Daniel Boone won for the first time since late in the 2020-21 season. Gaines hit three 3-pointers in the second half. Mason Sacarello scored 18 for the Blazers.

Boone’s last win came over Kutztown, 65-58.

At the Tulpehocken Tip-Off Tournament the host Trojans advanced to Saturday’s final with a 51-48 win over Upper Perkiomen. David Bednarczyk scored 21 points, 16 in the first half, for the Trojans. Nolan Sweitzer had 13 points and Lucas Werner 12.

Tulpehocken will face Pequea Valley, a 50-37 winner over West Perry, in the championship at 5.

Upper Perkiomen came all the way back from a 14-point deficit to tie it 43-43 with 3:24 remaining. The Indians tied the game at 46 and 48 but never took the lead. Sweitzer hit a pair of late free throws to push the lead to three Upper Perk had a good look at a 3-pointer just before the buzzer but the shot rimmed out.

At Hamburg, Conner Licklider scored a career-high 20 points as the Hawks beat Northern Lehigh 68-25 in the opening round of the Hamburg Tip-Off Tournament. Licklider had 14 points in the first half. The Hawks led 24-4 after one period.

In the opening game Jayden Kantner scored nine points as Brandywine Heights beat Annville-Cleona 41-28.

The Hawks and Bullets meet in the championship Saturday night at 7:30.

Earlier this year the PIAA reduced preseason practice in all sports — with the exception of football — from 15 practices to 10. That led to the staggered start of the season.