Exeter, Saenz enjoy another 3-for-all in romp over Dieruff
2023 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Exeter’s Kevin Saenz feels at home playing at the Geigle.
Earlier this season he scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting in a win over Reading High. Saturday he was just as efficient, scoring 18 first-half points and finishing with a game-high 22 in an 80-44 non-league win over Dieruff in the Geigle Classic.
Saenz missed his first shot, then hit nine of his next 10 as the Eagles (9-6) easily pulled past the Huskies (7-8).
“I love playing here,” said the senior guard. “It’s something about the backdrops . . . the rims. I don’t know, it’s just great playing here. At the end of the day, it’s just a gym . . . it’ s just a rim, but when we play here our stats ascend like crazy.”
It seems like no matter where the Eagles play this season their stats ascend like crazy. They’re a completely different team than the one that won a district championship and reached the PIAA championship game a year ago.
That team featured 6-6 center Anthony Caccese; former head coach Matt Ashcroft preferred to play a deliberate style and feed the big guy. His offense played inside out.
Caccese is gone, off playing football at Delaware, and the Eagles no longer have a dominating inside presence. What they have is a bunch of guys who can knock down jumpers and play at a fast pace, and first-year coach Jeff VanGorder is letting them loose.
The Eagles are the highest-scoring team in the Berks Conference at 70.0 per game and are challenging Berks’ all-time mark for 3-pointers.
After hitting 10 more shots from beyond the arc Saturday they have 149 for the season, and are averaging 9.9 per game.
Muhlenberg, in 2019-20, in the only team in league history to average 10 3’s per game; the Muhls set the Berks record with 303 3’s and averaged 10.4 per game.
“When we’re shooting the ball well, I don’t see a team stopping us,” said Saenz. “The only losses we have is because we didn’t shoot well.
“We have shown that when we shoot the ball well, the score is never close.”
The Eagles shot it well Saturday — well, after a slow start they did.
Exeter missed its first eight shots and fell behind 4-0 before Aidan Dauble found the range with a 3-pointer. Saenz followed with a basket in transition for a 5-4 lead and Exeter never trailed again.
Saenz had 10 first-quarter points to stake the Eagles to a 16-10 lead.
“We were just settling for jump shots at the beginning,” Saenz said. “We started to attack the basket. I knew I had to set the precedent and get to the rim. Attacking will get guys open for drive-and-kicks.”
Saenz made 3-of-5 shots from 3-point range and the Eagles were good on 10-of-23 overall, and that’s with most of the starters making their way to bench by the midpoint of the third quarter. Exeter led 40-21 at the half and 64-31 after three quarters.
Reece Garvin made a pair of 3’s, grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and finished with 11 points. Brady Murray scored 10. Twelve different Exeter players scored. Six different guys had 3’s.
It’s not just one guy who’s knocking down shots from the perimeter. Garvin leads the team with 29. Saenz and Murray have 27. Dauble has 17. Seven guys have 10 or more.
“We shoot it well at practice,” Saenz said. “Every day we put up a lot of shots. Coming into the games, we’re confident. We’re not gonna take shots that we don’t think are gonna drop.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Dieruff | 10 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 44 |
| Exeter | 16 | 24 | 24 | 16 | 80 |
| Huskies (7-8) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Fallah | 4-14 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Diaz | 3-10 | 1-2 | 1-5 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| A Pearsall | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Deris | 3-6 | 0-0 | 3-5 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Moore | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 11 | 4 |
| C Pearsall | 1-5 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Espinal | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rosario | 3-6 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Benson | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-51 | 3-8 | 7-20 | 6 | 28/29 | 44 |
| Eagles (9-6) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Kelsey | 1-4 | 2-2 | 0-2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Saenz | 8-10 | 3-3 | 3-5 | 3 | 6 | 22 |
| Garvin | 3-4 | 3-4 | 2-3 | 2 | 9 | 11 |
| Murray | 2-7 | 5-6 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Dauble | 3-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Nestor | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Ware | 2-5 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Flanders | 1-2 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Magee | 2-3 | 1-2 | 2-3 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Gwitira | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Redding | 12 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Govan | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Orbe-Ochoa | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Davis | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 26-55 | 18-22 | 10-23 | 13 | 30/32 | 80 |
Turnovers: Dieruff 14, Exeter 7. Team rebounds: Dieruff 1, Exeter 2.
