Red Knights buried in season-opening 90-point avalanche
2023 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
YORK — You may witness Halley’s Comet, sink a hole-in-one or win the Mega Millions jackpot before you see a scoreboard like the one at Central York Tuesday night.
It showed Reading High falling behind by 20 points in the second half and unable to stop the Panthers from scoring bucket after bucket.
The Red Knights have built their reputation in recent years around toughness and the ability to stop teams from scoring.
Tuesday, in their season-opener, they couldn’t.
“I promise you, we won’t give up 90 points again,” said Francis Camara following his first game as head coach, a 90-73 loss against a talented, veteran Central York team.
The Red Knights – absent four starters from last year’s 32-1 state champs – are a completely new squad. They have some key pieces from last year’s team back, including defensive stoppers Malik Osumanu and Nick Chapman.
Who would emerge as scorers was a question before the season tipped but Camara and his players were confident they could defend.
When the Panthers started knocking down shots and got on a roll in the third quarter the Knights couldn’t slow them down, allowing 14 points over a rough 3 ½-minute stretch.
Central York hit 12-of-18 shots from the field, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, and went from four points down at intermission to up 20 in the final seconds of the third quarter.
The Panthers scored 28 points in the third quarter and 52 in the second half. They became just the fourth team in the last 120-plus years, and the first in almost 10 years, to reach 90 points against the Red Knights.
“We are a good defensive team,” Camara said. “What you saw out there is not the product we’ve been working on.”
What made it all the more stunning is that the Red Knights played so brilliantly over the opening 10 minutes. They ran the floor and shared the ball and knocked down open shots in building an 11-point lead.
They looked like a team that has played a lot of basketball together, which they have throughout the summer and fall.
“We generate good open shots for each other once we get the ball moving and get good ball reversals, get the ball in the post,” Camara said.
Central York coach Jeff Hoke, who saw Aris Rodriguez open last year’s 87-68 Reading victory with four straight 3-pointers, was experiencing deja vu.
“We want to play fast; we want to score 20-25 points every quarter,” Hoke said. “We thought we could (run) with them. Trust me, we knew they were gonna get off the bus and come and beat us up. And they did. I wasn’t surprised at that.”
Nick Chapman, who had never scored more than nine points in a game, had that many in the first quarter as he aggressively attacked the basket. He hit a 3-pointer in transition and another open 3 later in the quarter; he had 15 points by halftime and finished with 19.
Yadiel Cruz, going against guys four and six inches taller, showed his smooth post moves and a knack for scoring around the basket. He had a dozen points at half and finished with a team-high 20, matching his career high.
As hot as the Knights were at the beginning, that’s how cold they were at the start of third period. They missed their first nine shots and went scoreless for more than four minutes. Couple that with a Central team that came out with renewed determination and you’ve got the makings of a game-altering run.
Greg Guidinger, a 6-7 senior, scored 10 points in 19-2 run that opened a 13-point lead.
Ben Rill, a 6-8 junior center, didn’t score in the first quarter; the Panthers made a concerted effort to get him the ball coming out of halftime. With Osumanu, Reading’s 6-5 center, opening the half on the bench after drawing three first-half fouls, he had an obvious mismatch in the post and scored eight third-quarter points, on the way to 15 for the game; he also had 14 rebounds.
“Malik is huge for us,” Camara said. “He’s a strong defensive presence, and he also brings a lot of composure to our team.”
By the time Osumanu returned to the court Reading was down 10; it was never able to recover. When the Red Knights tried to trap and press fullcourt in the fourth quarter it only got worse; the Panthers found open looks in transition and they didn’t waste them. They shot 70 percent in the second half (21-of-30).
“They got a lot of open looks, and we weren’t rotating on the backside and ultimately that’s how they got us,” Camara said. “We just struggled defensively. We got stops, but there were times we were giving up one, two, three offensive rebounds; you’re giving them extra possessions and you get a result like that.”
Opening the season at Central York is a tall order for any team, much less one with three guys making their first start. The Panthers return intact after winning 22 times last year. They have designs on a District 3 Class 6A title. They’ve been close in recent years but haven’t been able to get past the Red Knights. Tuesday they did.
“They look like a team that is ready and primed to have a great season,” Camara said. “They look like a team that’s been together for a long time.
“They started to work harder (in the second half) and they outplayed us. We just got beat up today, that’s all. We have to get back in the gym and lock in our on habits defensively.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Reading High | 23 | 19 | 5 | 26 | 73 |
| Central York | 15 | 23 | 28 | 24 | 90 |
| Red Knights (0-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burgess | 1-5 | 3-4 | 1-4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Cruz | 8-14 | 4-8 | 0-1 | 2 | 7 | 20 |
| Chapman | 4-15 | 9-11 | 2-2 | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Rosario | 3-6 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Osumanu | 3-5 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Camara | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Pena | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Sosa | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Beatty | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Salvador | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Jackson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 26-59 | 16-23 | 5-14 | 13 | 28/35 | 73 |
Turnovers: 24 Team rebounds: 7.
| Panthers (1-0) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Brown | 4-6 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Natal | 7-17 | 2-6 | 2-5 | 0 | 3 | 18 |
| Giudinger | 5-7 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 3 | 5 | 12 |
| Layer | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Rill | 7-13 | 1-5 | 0-1 | 0 | 14 | 15 |
| Mace | 7-8 | 5-6 | 2-2 | 1 | 1 | 21 |
| Suchanic | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Jackson | 4-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Pinkney | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Totals | 37-63 | 9-18 | 7-14 | 8 | 30/34 | 90 |
Turnovers: 18. Team rebounds: 4.
