It’s win-or-go home for Berks champ Wilson in district opener at Cedar Crest
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Matt Coldren will tell you his Wilson basketball team went through an unsettling midseason slide that saw them lose four times in seven games.
The Bulldogs got off to an 8-1 start, a streak that culminated in a 61-50 win over Central York, the top seed in the District 3 Class 6A Tournament.
After that?
“We were in a funk,” said Coldren after winning the Berks Conference championship last week. “We just couldn’t put a full game together.”
One of those less-than-full efforts came in mid-January at Cedar Crest. Now, five weeks later and with their season on the line, the Bulldogs head to Cedar Crest Tuesday night to tip off the District 3 Tournament.
A win sends 10th-seeded Wilson (17-8) to the quarterfinals and puts them within one win of a return trip to the PIAA Tournament. A loss ends their season just four days after they celebrated a championship at Santander Arena against long-time rival Reading High.
Cedar Crest (19-5), the No. 7 seed and a league champion itself, is in the same do-or-die situation.
“To know that at the end of the night if we don’t pull it out, our season’s over, is heartbreaking,” said Falcons coach Tommy Smith, his team fresh off a Lancaster-Lebanon League championship. “It’s crazy.”
Three other Berks Conference teams open district play Tuesday night: No. 6 Reading High plays No. 11 Penn Manor at the Geigle in Class 6A; No. 8 Schuylkill Valley hosts No. 9 Middletown in 4A; and No. 5 Oley Valley plays at No. 4 York Catholic in 3A.
A first-round match-up between league champs is an incredible way to open the district playoffs – or to see your season end. Seven teams from District 3 will go on to the play in the Class 6A state tournament. One of Wilson or Cedar Crest definitely won’t.
(Tim Macrina photo)
Cedar Crest won the first meeting 70-61 on Jan. 13 at The Cage in South Lebanon.
“We played one of our most complete games that afternoon,” Smith said. “We beat ’em on a day when they made 10 3’s, which is tough to do. This is a different animal, because they are riding a hot streak right now.”
The Falcons, like the Bulldogs, went through a rough late-season patch. They lost four of their final seven regular-season games before tearing through their league tournament with wins over Octorara, Manheim Central and finally Warwick, by 19 points.
Cedar Crest has had some impressive wins this season. In addition to beating Wilson it beat Exeter by 13 points and walloped Penn Manor – the L-L Section 1 runner-up – by 44 points.
The Falcons also lost to Penn Manor by 16 points. They lost by 25 points to Lampeter-Strasburg (which Monday lost to Exeter by 24). To Central Dauphin by 23. And to Berks Catholic by 22. They’re all playoffs clubs, but still. Those were some one-sided losses.
Smith admits he’s “baffled” by the inconsistent nature of his team.
“There were some games we just didn’t show up and play our brand of basketball,” he said.
Coldren will tell you the same thing, pointing to a loss to Hempfield one night after a win over Central York; to a loss to Reading High two nights after the Red Knights – minus All-Berks guard Nick Chapman — was crushed by Exeter; to a late-season fumble against a 16-loss Harrisburg team.
Smith said he went back to basics to get his team refocused for the postseason.
“Went back to the defensive end,” he said. “That has been the backbone of our program. We were spending so much time focusing on our opponents and didn’t’ take the time to focus on ourselves. When we got beat by Lampeter-Strasburg that my look-in-the-mirror moment.”
Smith and Coldren will each be stressing better defense in the rematch.
Cedar Crest is the only team to reach 70 points against Wilson. The Bulldogs will have to find a better way to stop bullish guard Fernando Marquez, a 200-pound fullback in football who scored 21 points against them in January.
They’ll also have to find a way to neutralize the Falcons inside, where emerging 6-7 junior center RJ Young had a double-double with six blocked shots in the league championship game. Cedar Crest also has 6-6 Aiden Schomp, a Lehigh tight end recruit.
Smith is just as worried about Wilson’s ability to score, especially its backcourt of All-Berks junior Madyx Gruber and all-division sophomore Correll Akings.
“They shoot the ball very, very well,” he said. “(Gruber) is really good. We have to make sure he earns his points. (Akings) is a super-quick good guard. Taking (them) away is a key.”
The Falcons will have plenty of motivation, that’s for sure. They’ve been eliminated by the Bulldogs the last two times they’ve made districts, last year and in 2020.
And then there’s that football thing: Four of their five starters are football players who took it on the chin from Wilson last fall. The Bulldogs’ rotation includes at least five football players: Gruber, Akings, Tommy Hunsicker, Cam Zullinger and Christo Hunsicker. That should add a little more heat to a matchup that figures to bubble over at some point.
“I love playing against these guys in the sense that you’re gonna get a battle every night,” Smith said. “They’re so well-coached, and any time you get a chance to beat Coach Coldren, that’s a good win.”
