It’s a perfect finish for the Spartans
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(This story will be updated later tonight with a full boxscore, additional details and postgame reaction.)
Wyomissing, getting key baskets from Audrey Hurleman and Kacey Maggs in the second half, completed the first perfect run to a Berks girls basketball championship Friday, beating Wilson 45-36 in the BCIAA finale at Santander Arena.
No Berks girls basketball team has ever been crowned champ with an unbeaten record. (The first Berks girls champ was crowned in 1973.)
Only three Berks boys basketball teams have done that in the last 50 years: Reading High in 2008, Central Catholic in 1996 and Wilson in 1987.
| Past champs | |
| 2024 | Wyomissing |
| 2023 | Wyomissing |
| 2022 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2021 | Berks Catholic |
| 2020 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2019 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2018 | Berks Catholic |
| 2017 | Berks Catholic |
| 2016 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2015 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2014 | Wilson |
| 2013 | Wilson |
| 2012 | Wilson |
| 2011 | Gov. Mifflin |
| 2010 | Reading High |
| 2009 | Reading High |
| 2008 | Wilson |
| 2007 | Reading High |
| 2006 | Wilson |
| 2005 | Schuylkill Valley |
| 2004 | Reading High |
| 2003 | Reading High |
| 2002 | Reading High |
| 2001 | Holy Name |
| 2000 | Wilson |
The Spartans (25-0) got 20 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots from junior Amaya Stewart, the Berks Player of the Year as a junior.
Annie McCaffrey helped her team get over the hump in the second half, scoring 12 of her 16 points as the Spartans claimed their second straight county title.
Hurleman made two key plays at the end of the third quarter, snapping a 27-27 tie when she scored on a cut off a pass from McCaffrey. Her steal and layup just before the buzzer put the Spartans up four.
Maggs didn’t score in the first three quarters but hit a huge 3-pointer to push Wyomissing’s lead to 34-29 with 4:14 remaining. She later hit a pair of free throws after Wilson had pulled within 38-34.
Wilson’s last championship came in 2014 when it completed just the third three-peat in Berks girls basketball championship history. Reading High won three in a row from 2002-04 and from 1979-81.
Wilson ended the second quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 21-6 lead into halftime. Laila Jones knocked down a 3-pointer with three seconds left to give the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the half.
Stewart gave Wyomissing a 9-7 lead heading into the second quarter when she finished the opening period with a spin move and basket with 11 seconds.
Only Stewart and McCaffrey scored in the first half for Wyomissing.
The Spartans haven’t lost in nearly 11 months; they last fell to Pittsburgh North Catholic in the PIAA quarterfinals, which capped a season in which they won their first Berks and District 3 titles.
“We’re excited as a program, school, and community to be in this position,” Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders said before the game. “It’s a reflection of where the program is going.”
Stewart is surrounded by top-tier athletes in senior McCaffrey, a University of Massachusetts soccer commit; Hurleman, a University of North Carolina lacrosse commit; and junior Alexis Hardy, an All-State performer in track.
They combined for a 28-2 record last season and the program’s first District 3 championship.
The Spartans defeated Reading High 46-36 in the quarterfinals and Gov. Mifflin 50-42 in the semifinals.
The Bulldogs defeated Schuylkill Valley 66-20 in the quarterfinals and Berks Catholic 41-24 in the semifinals.
