Saints, Red Knights face hurdles in bids to repeat as District 3 champs
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Berks Catholic and Reading High each celebrated District 3 championships at Giant Center last March, and each is positioned to return again. Bringing home gold won’t be quite as easy as in recent years.
The Saints (20-3) have won two straight Class 4A championships and as the No. 1 seed they’re the presumed favorite this time around.
Most of the wins that helped Berks Catholic pile up the highest power rating in the district came with super soph Kingston McKoy on the floor. They’ve played without him the last month, since he broke his leg, and will for the remainder of the season.
It hasn’t been easy for the Saints ever since he was lost: They dropped back-to-back games the week after McKoy was injured and then again last week against eventual champ Wilson in the Berks Conference semifinals; they also had several tighter-than-expected wins against non-playoff teams late in the regular season.
The Saints begin pursuit of a third straight district title tonight when they host ninth-seeded Middletown at 7 at Wolf Gymnasium. They earned a first-round bye.
Berks Catholic will be one of four Berks boys teams playing tonight: No. 6 Reading High, which has won three straight Class 6A titles, plays at No. 3 Carlisle; Fleetwood, the No. 2 seed in 4A, plays at home against No. 9 Boiling Spring; and No. 3 Antietam plays at No. 2 Lancaster Mennonite in a Class 2A semifinal.
Only the Mounts (12-11) face elimination; just two 2A teams from District 3 advance to the PIAA Tournament. Berks Catholic, Reading and Fleetwood would each go into the playback round should they lose.
The Mounts face the biggest challenge as they again see against their nemesis, the second-seeded Blazers (15-8). Antietam has lost to Mennonite in the championship game three straight seasons; it also lost to the Blazers 53-45 earlier this season, at Mount Penn.
This might not be as strong a Mennonite team as the Mounts faced in the past; it has just one return starter. However, the Blazers have gotten a big boost from breakout sophomore Cody Fisher, a 6-4 guard who is averaging 16.7 points, shoots 81.5 percent from the foul line and has knocked down 53 shots from beyond the arc.
The Mounts have a pretty good sophomore guard of their own in AJ Scheifly, who leads the Berks IV champs in scoring at 15.9 per game. He had 21 points in the first meeting against Mennonite.
The Saints face a Middletown (16-7) team coming off a 48-35 first-round win at Schuylkill Valley. The Blue Raiders ended their season on an eight-game winning streak; they haven’t lost since falling at home to Wyomissing 51-40 more than five weeks ago.
Middletown lost a district game at Berks Catholic in 2018 and dropped the district final to the Saints 60-37 in 2022. It beat Berks Catholic, then the No. 1 seed, 44-43 on a buzzer-beater in a 2017 semifinal at Garden Spot.
The Tigers (19-3), who earned a first-round bye, are looking for a return trip to the district final and for back-to-back 20-win seasons for just the second time in program history. They haven’t done that since 1983 and 1984. They have reached 20 wins just five times in their 71 seasons.
The Tigers are led by 1,000-point scorer Aiden Soumas, who leads the Berks III champs in scoring at 18.0 per game, third-highest in the league.
The Bubblers (16-7) finished third in the Mid-Penn Capital Division, behind Trinity and Middletown. They advanced with a 57-52 win over Elco.
The Bubblers have been hot since a five-game midseason losing streak, going 9-2 over the last month. Earlier they scored a 79-74 win over Trinity, the No. 1 seed in 3A.
The Red Knights (18-8) put a 10-game district winning streak on the line when they face the Thundering Herd, which is battle-tested after finished second in the rugged Mid-Penn Commonwealth.
The Herd lost twice to Cumberland Valley, the No. 2 seed in 6A, once to fifth-seeded Central Dauphin and once to Hershey, the No. 1 seed in 5A. They also knocked off Central Dauphin, a game that Parker Smith drop 30 points.
Carlisle saw its nine-game winning streak snapped Feb. 8 with an 83-77 overtime loss to Cumberland Valley.
Reading saw its seven-game winning streak snapped by Wilson last week in the Berks Conference title game, 54-53. It bounced back with a 70-55 over Penn Manor at the Geigle as Yadiel Cruz scored 17 points.
Reading’s seniors won’t play at the Geigle again unless they beat Carlisle and No. 7 Cedar Crest takes out No. 2 Cumberland Valley tonight.
If Reading loses it goes into the playback round to compete for one of seven PIAA state berth.
