Reading’s Myles Grey: ‘People aren’t able to keep up with us’
COATESVILLE — No one is surprised to see Reading High make it to the PIAA Class 6A championship game, least of all the Red Knights themselves.
“We believe in ourselves, (and) that we were capable of getting here,” said senior point guard Myles Grey after the Red Knights dominated Spring-Ford 55-32 in a state semifinal Tuesday at Coatesville to punch their ticket to Saturday’s finale at Giant Center.
How they’ve gotten to this point, though, that’s been a little unexpected, especially after a sluggish performance in the District 3 championship game. They needed overtime to fend off undermanned but gritty Cumberland Valley.
Ever since the Red Knights (31-1) have strung together four pearls, winning by 31, 25, 24 and now 23 points. That’s an average winning margin of nearly 26.
The last time down this road, in the truncated 2021 tournament, they won by 15 and 22 points on the way to a one-point championship win over Archbishop Wood.
In their first successful championship run, in 2017, they were constantly fighting from behind and won their first four tournament games by an average of 8.5 points before beating Pine-Richland by four.
In their first trip to tournament’s end, in 1973, they had a couple squeakers – they edged Upper Merion by a single point and Chester by six in the semifinals.
No such drama on this journey.
“I didn’t expect this,” admitted Grey of the lopsided scores, “but it’s just the way we came out and played, and people weren’t able to keep up.”
The only drama Tuesday came in whether or not Berks Player of the Year Ruben Rodriguez would reach the 2,000-point career scoring mark. It appeared out of the question at halftime, after he scored just two points in the snail-paced game.
He got hot in the second half, drilled seven straight free throws in the fourth quarter and became Reading’s first 2,000-point scorer with a pull-up floater with 1:53 left.
The outcome of the game wasn’t nearly as interesting.
The Red Knights scored on their first three possessions and built a 13-0 lead with less than two minutes to go in the opening period. The District 1 runner-up Rams (28-4) got no closer than seven the rest of the way and that was for one brief possession in the opening minute of the second half.
“Coming out with energy like that, that’s really big,” said Rodriguez, who finished with a game-high 20 points, “and I feel we carried that energy through the whole game. We started off really hard and we played defense really well in that first half; we held them to 13 points.
“When you’re doing that in the state semis, that’s really good defense. That just shows how locked in we are and how much we really want to win it.”
The Rams couldn’t run their patterned, efficient offense because Reading’s defenders were too quick and too prepared for what they faced. Spring-Ford didn’t sink its first basket for 9 ½ minutes and ended the first half 3-for-11 from the field and with 13 points. A team that averaged better than five 3’s per game went 1-for-15 from beyond the arc.
“We just couldn’t score,” said Spring-Ford coach Joe Dempsey. “They’re so athletic at every position. They can switch almost one through five. Dribble handoffs are useless; screens away are useless. Their pressure just . . . I don’t want to say took its toll, but it certainly had an effect on the game.”
Reading held Spring-Ford scoreless for a six-minute stretch of the third quarter and essentially put the game away, building a 34-15 lead.
Jacob Nguyen, Spring-Ford’s leading scorer for the season, finished with six points and was 0-for-6 from 3-point range. He had 89 3’s coming into the game. The Rams’ previous low scoring total this season came in a 42-40 win at Wilson on Jan. 17.
“We took away the guys who create the action,” said Reading coach Rick Perez, “we fought over screens, made it difficult for them to get into their patterns; we just wanted to disrupt it.”
The win, Reading’s 22nd straight, sends it up against defending state champ Roman Catholic, a 66-56 winner over Archbishop Wood in the other semifinal.
Rodriguez and Grey were sophomore starters on the team that upset nationally ranked Archbishop Wood for the 2021 championship. Senior classmate Amier Burdine was a key reserve on that squad; Aris Rodriguez, who scored 12 points Tuesday, was part of that championship team, too
Roman will be favored to win a second straight title but this is as experienced Reading group, one that’s been as successful as any the Red Knights have ever had. The seniors have gone 83-7 over the past three seasons, with three straight District 3 championships and an 8-1 record in PIAA Tournament play.
For decades Reading fans were tortured by their team’s one-point loss to General Braddock in the 1973 state final and in their inability to get back to the final game. Now they are looking for their third state championship in seven years and second in three seasons.
“It’s a dream come true,” Rodriguez said of a return trip. “We’ve dreaming about this our whole lives. To be able to say we’re going to the state ’chip is really crazy. It’s just a blessing. To do it with my family, a group of guys like this, it’s special.”
“The job’s not finished yet,” cautioned Grey. “We can’t smile too much. We’ve got one more left.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Spring-Ford | 3 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 32 |
| Reading High | 13 | 9 | 14 | 19 | 55 |
| Rams (28-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Campbell | 5-17 | 6-8 | 1-8 | 2 | 6 | 17 |
| Nguyen | 2-12 | 2-2 | 0-5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Zollers | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Little | 0-1 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Kelly | 0-1 | 4-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Lewis | 2-6 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| McKenna | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Medearis | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grosshanten | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 9-39 | 13-19 | 1-15 | 4 | 19-19 | 32 |
| Red Knights (31-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 1-2 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Cruz | 2-4 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 7 | 5 |
| R. Rodriguez | 5-11 | 9-10 | 1-3 | 3 | 7 | 20 |
| Grey | 2-8 | 3-4 | 0-3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| A Rodriguez | 3-5 | 4-6 | 2-3 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| Osumanu | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Chapman | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Ortega | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Sosa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Burgess | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Samuel | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-35 | 19-28 | 4-11 | 7 | 27-32 | 55 |
Turnovers: Spring-Ford 13, Reading High 10.Fouled out: Little.
