Ruben Rodriguez: ‘We know what it takes to win’ a state championship

There were times early in the season when Reading High didn’t always open games with a sense of urgency.

The Red Knights fell behind Cardinal O’Hara by 19 points in early December. They trailed Devon Prep 15-2 at the outset of the Reading Holiday Tournament championship. They trailed at Exeter by eight in the first quarter.

That almost seems like a different season now. Once they hit the PIAA Tournament the Red Knights kicked it into another gear. That was evident in their state semifinal win over Spring-Ford Tuesday when they scored the first 13 points.

“These young men, you could see it in their eyes,” said Reading coach Rick Perez, “(you could see it in) their preparation, the way they’re coming to practice: They’re ready to go.

“These guys understand what’s at stake, and (you can) see that they’ve turned it up and are willing to make whatever play or do whatever takes, on the court or off the court, to make it happen.”

The Red Knights (31-1), who have won more games than any team in the state, are riding a 22-game winning streak and are peaking at the right time. Their state tournament wins have come by 31, 25, 24, and 23 points.

“I didn’t expect this,” admitted senior guard Myles Grey of the ease of Reading’s wins. “It’s just the way we came out and played, and people weren’t able to keep up.”

The easy portion of the state tournament is over. When the Red Knights get on the court Saturday at 8 at Giant Center against defending state champ Roman Catholic they will be scrapping every second of the way.

The Cahillites (27-3) are a step above anyone Reading has faced to date. They are true royalty when it comes to Pennsylvania big-school basketball.  They have gone 28-2 in the state tournament over the past nine years, with four PIAA championships.

They beat Catholic League rival Archbishop Wood 77-65 for the title last year and beat the Vikings three times this season – most recently 66-56 in a state semifinal. Many who watch the Philly hoops scene closely expected Wood to beat the short-handed Cahillites Tuesday.

Roman entered the state tournament minus a pair of starters, Jermai Stewart-Herring, a second-team all-league guard who’s second on the team in scoring, and Erik Oliver-Bush, a 6-4 guard. Neither was eligible for PIAA postseason play after transferring to Roman before this season.

The Cahillites have had some close calls without them. They needed overtime to squeeze past Lower Merion 60-56 in the second round.  They led Wood by just two entering the fourth quarter before St. Joseph’s recruit Xzayvier Brown scored 15 points over the final eight minutes.

Roman has 21 points and 10 rebounds per game sitting on the bench with Stewart-Herring and Oliver-Bush unable to play. That’s become a bit of a rallying point.

“Everyone picked against us (after we lost those two players),” Roman coach Chris McNesby told cityofbasketballlove.com, “but I looked at it like as long as we have Xzayvier Brown, we have a chance. He controls tempo, he dictates pace, he puts everybody in the right spot.”

Brown made a game-turning steal in OT against Lower Merion and came up big in the league championship game against Neumann-Goretti, when he scored 20 points. Roman finished second behind Goretti in the regular season after splitting two games with the Saints.

The 6-1 Brown averages a team-leading 16.1 points, 4.7 assists and 2.2 steals; he shoots 81 percent from the foul line and 35 percent from 3-point range.

He’s joined in the lineup by 6-7 sophomore Shareef Jackson, who averages 10.7 points, a team-best 8.1 rebounds and shoots 60.7 percent from the field. (He’s the son of former Temple and NBA guard Marc Jackson.)

Anthony Finkley, a 6-6 senior who will join Brown at St. Joe’s next season, averages 8.6 points, leads the team with 42 3-pointers and shoots 38 percent from beyond the arc. He was a second-team all-league pick.

Considering the DNA of each program it makes for what could be an outstanding finale to PIAA Championship Week. The Red Knights and Cahillites have combined to win six of the last seven championships in the largest classification.

Given that, it’s hard to believe it’s been 13 years since they played and incredible that they kept missing each other in the state tournament in recent years.

Roman vs. Reading was the game everyone wanted to see in 2017 when Lonnie Walker IV was a senior at Reading. Walker played with some of Roman’s players in the AAU circuit, and they tried to lure him to transfer and win a state title with them.

That dream match-up never came off as Roman was stunned in the first round by Perkiomen Valley; Walked stayed true to Reading and led it to its first state title.

They were close to playing the year before but Reading was knocked off in the state semifinals by Allderdice. Roman beat ‘Dice for the championship.

They were in the same quadrant of the bracket in 2018 and were destined to meet but Reading was knocked off in the second round by C.B. West in overtime.

They could’ve met last year, too. The Red Knights nearly came all the way back from a 25-point deficit in a 64-58 second-round loss to Archbishop Wood. The Vikings used that as a springboard to reach the championship game. With Daniel Alcantara on the floor, the Knights probably would’ve gotten past Wood and challenged Roman, but he was lost for the season with a broken back early in the playoffs.

The last time Roman and Reading met they needed an extra eight minutes to decide it. That came in a 2010 state second-round game at Coatesville. The Cahillites pulled away in the second OT for a deceiving 62-47 win.

Roman and Reading have played often over the years but the Red Knights haven’t won in the series since the 1974-75 season, when Jim Gano was the coach and Pete Pasko was the leading scorer. They’ve lost 11 straight since, most of them in the 1980’s when the team met almost every season. They have played just four times since 2000.

The Red Knights will be an underdog, as they were two years ago against Wood, but they’re not to be dismissed: Perez has them playing at a high level right now and believing they can beat anybody.

“We know what it takes (to win a championship),” said 2,000-point scorer Ruben Rodriguez. “We know it’s going to be a battle, and we know the game’s never over. So we’ve got to come in and handle business, because last time (in the 2021 championship against Wood) we started off slow.

“This year we want to start off fast, control the game the whole time, and do what we do: Play Reading High basketball.”