Fleetwood Tigers ready to wash away bad taste of district tournaments past

Jake Karnish, Aiden Soumas and their Fleetwood teammates got a small taste of the District 3 Tournament last year – and they didn’t like it.

The Tigers lost by 25 and 21 points and were done.

A season later they should benefit from that experience, distasteful as it was.

“What helped is how we got smacked,” said Tigers coach Terry Sitler. “They were a little bitter from that. They realized they had a lot of work to do and that we’re not as good as we think we are.”

The Tigers enter district play Thursday in an entirely different situation than a year ago. First, they’re down a classification, to 4A; that should help. After the best regular season in program history, they’ll enter as the No. 2  seed and with a home game against No. 10 Middletown.

Unlike last year, when they entered as the No. 13 seed, they’re in favorable position to make a run at their first PIAA Tournament berth in 33 years.

Fleetwood’s last district playoff win came in 1990. Every other team in the league has won a district game since 1995; 16 of the other 17 have won one during this millennium.

After a 20-2 regular season and winning back-to-back division titles for the first time in almost 70 years, a return to the state tournament would complete a significant hat trick and clinch this as one of the best seasons in program history.

“Having that No. 2 seed, having the (first-round) bye, and being able to scout the teams (in person) gives us a lot more confidence going in,” said Sitler.

“They seem really focused right now, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow,” he said.

Good as the Tigers’ season has been to date, it’s been a while since they’ve won a game – three weeks.

They lost their regular season finale to Wyomissing 35-34, then lost to Wilson 54-53 in a Berks Conference quarterfinal.

Prior to that their only loss came to Manheim Central, the No. 1 seed in the Class 5A tournament.

“Even though we haven’t had a win in three weeks we came off the Wilson game positive, knowing that we’re right there everybody else,” Sitler said. “That didn’t hit us as bad (as the loss to Wyomissing) because of the way we played.”

And the loss to the Spartans, who finished 8-14?

“It woke everybody up a little bit,” Sitler said. “We’re itching to play.”

Middletown finished third in the  Mid-Penn Capital Division, losing twice to both division champ Trinity and runner-up Bishop McDevitt, the No. 6 seed in Class 4A.

The Blue Raiders eked out a 47-45 victory at Schuylkill Valley in the first round, rallying from a 14-7 deficit after one period. They had lost 5-of-7 entering the postseason.

Win or lose the Tigers play again Monday, either in a district semifinal – against No. 3 Littlestown or McDevitt – or in a state qualifier. The top six teams from District 3 advance to the state tournament.

With two wins they could find themselves in an all-Berks championship game March 2 at Giant Center at 12:45.

It’s not as if the Tigers are without a trophy case full of basketball trophies; it’s just that they’re a little dusty. They’ve won four district championships, but none since 1990. They won a PIAA championship in 1957 and made another run at one in 1983, when they reached the state semifinals.

They just haven’t done much lately. Last year’s 16-8 record was their best since 1990, when they won 18 games, including a District 3 Class A championship.