Caraline Herb celebrates Berks Catholic Senior Night with milestone, title clinching
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
The celebratory balloons showed 1,000, a number that could be applied to the amount of points Caraline Herb has scored in her career or the various ways her impact will reverberate through the Berks Catholic girls basketball program.
Herb hit the mark with — no, not a 3 — an easy layup with 5:05 left in the first quarter of the Saints’ 54-40 win over visiting Gov. Mifflin Friday night.
“I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Herb said. “It was just a layup in the moment. Then when it went in I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’ It’s crazy. I would’ve never imagined it to be like this.”
Herb, a senior who will play at Chestnut Hill College next season, didn’t set out to score 1,000 points; her main objective when she came to Berks Catholic was to win games. All of these points are a byproduct of that. Herb and the Saints have gone 73-28 over her four seasons.
In her first three seasons she learned from Caroline Reedy, who now plays at Alvernia; Mackenzie Gordos, who’s playing at DeSales; and Aaliyah Dabney. Each graduated last year. All were in attendance for Senior Night at Wolf Gymnasium to watch their former teammate reach the scoring milestone.
“It feels great,” Herb said. “There was definitely a little bit of stress. But now that it’s over with I feel relieved.”
Herb sits at 1,009 points, fourth in program history behind Devon Merritt (1,730), Dejah Terrell (1,290), and Reedy (1,053). Eight girls scored 1K for Holy Name and seven for Central Catholic.
Now, Herb’s leadership and accomplishments are impacting another wave of new, ambitious Saints.
Berks Catholic’s top two scorers behind Herb are sophomores Madison Langdon and Sydney Corado who led the way Friday as the Saints (11-0, 16-5) clinched the Berks Girls League Division I crown.
“Having a role model like Caraline on the floor, it helps us a lot,” Langdon said. “She works so hard so I’m just really happy for her.”
“We look up to her a lot,” Corado said. “I was so proud. She deserves it 100%.”
Corado had 15 points, 11 rebounds and five assists; Langdon had 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
Herb finished with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
Berks Catholic scored the first 13 points during an opening run that saw Herb hit 1,000.
Corado went on a 6-0 personal run and Langdon scored four points, including two free throws after Gov. Mifflin coach Mike Clark was called for a technical.
The Saints utilized backdoor cuts on offense that took advantage of the Mustangs aggressive defense and resulted in multiple easy layups right.
“It was just the flow of the offense,” Corado said. “A lot of the backdoor cuts were mainly because they were overplaying, and we were really smart about that. We were making the right decisions with passes and cuts. We knew that they were coming for us.”
It was a statement win for the Saints. They beat Gov. Mifflin 48-38 on Jan. 5, but the Mustangs (8-3, 10-11) were without top scorer Taylor Koenig; she didn’t return from a knee injury until Jan. 17.
Mifflin defeated Berks Catholic on Shakyla Mayo’s buzzer-beater in last season’s county semifinals; three days later the Mustangs beat Wilson for the championship.
Either the Saints or Mustangs have won the county championship in the past eight seasons.
Mayo hit a 3-pointer for Gov. Mifflin’s first points of the opening quarter with 4:05 left, and the Mustangs finished the quarter on a 7-3 run.
Gov. Mifflin senior Anyah Ortiz, who is averaging 11 points per game, entered the game for the first time in the second quarter. The Mustangs buckled down on the defensive side of the ball and Ortiz’s penetration opened up the outside shots as Mayo, Koenig, and Keira Estrada each hit 3’s to make it 18-17 with 3:46 left before halftime.
Corado and Langdon combined to go 6-for-6 from the foul line as the Saints took a 26-20 lead into the half and didn’t allow the Mustangs to obtain the lead.
Berks Catholic went back to its backdoor cuts, outmuscled the Mustangs on the boards, and started to pull away in the third. Herb had seven points, Langdon six, and sophomore Molly McFadden four as the Saints took a 43-31 lead into the final quarter.
“We did a good job reading the floor and if they were playing up, we went backdoor,” Langdon said.
The Mustangs cut the lead to 10 with 4:36 left in the fourth but didn’t get any closer. The Saints finished with 15 assists and 32 rebounds; the Mustangs had three and 24.
“I feel like we hustled a lot and that’s what really helped us get those rebounds,” Corado said.
Berks Catholic has won 11-of-12 as it gears up for county and district playoff runs. The Saints are currently ranked No. 2 in the District 3 Class 4A power rankings behind Delone Catholic, the team that beat them in last year’s district final.
“It feels great but we’re going to keep working hard,” Langdon said. “We’re looking forward to counties and districts.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 16 | 10 | 17 | 11 | 54 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 7 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 40 |
| Saints (16-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Herb | 4-10 | 3-4 | 1-5 | 3 | 5 | 12 |
| Mad. Langdon | 4-7 | 6-9 | 1-2 | 5 | 6 | 15 |
| McFadden | 3-9 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Corado | 4-7 | 7-9 | 0-3 | 5 | 11 | 15 |
| Roberts | 0-1 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Brown | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Mac. Langdon | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-37 | 19-26 | 3-14 | 15 | 29-32 | 54 |
| Mustangs (10-11) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Mayo | 4-12 | 6-7 | 2-7 | 0 | 3 | 16 |
| Ortiz | 4-10 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Koenig | 4-11 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Estrada | 2-8 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Richardson | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Eustache | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Witman | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Vazquez | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 14-44 | 7-10 | 5-17 | 3 | 18-24 | 40 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 15, Gov. Mifflin 14.