Are Red Knights even better than they were a year ago?
WARMINSTER — Ruben Rodriguez wasn’t ready to jump on board with the theory. He just smiled when it was suggested that his Reading High basketball team is playing every bit as good right now, maybe even better, than it did last March when it won a PIAA championship.
“I can’t speak on that,” he said humbly after the Red Knights smothered La Salle College 52-32 Saturday afternoon in the Diane Mosco Foundation Shootout at Archbishop Wood. “I feel like we’re playing really good basketball right now.”
The Explorers put at least three Division I prospects on the floor. They’re picked to be among the top teams in the Philadelphia Catholic League this season. They came in 3-0, with a 40-point win over Germantown Academy and a 20-point win over Norristown. And they were no match for the Red Knights.
Daniel Alcantara put up six quick points, fueling an 8-0 start, and the Explorers never really mounted a challenge. They couldn’t, not with the way the Red Knights (4-0) were playing defense, contesting every dribble of every possession, 30 feet from the basket and in. They got no open looks and precious few second chances.
“We saw on film they played a lot of teams that don’t focus on defense as much as we do,” said Rodriguez, a junior guard, “so we knew they weren’t ready for what we do. We just kept playing defense.”
The Explorers had 16 points at halftime, and those were hard to come by. The Red Knights, giving up an inch or two at every spot on the floor, went to the glass aggressively and denied second shots.
Believe it, there were plenty of second-chance opportunities available. The Explorers made just 11-of-41 shots, 2-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Nix Varano, who’s committed to play at Army, was completely frustrated by the defense of Joey Chapman and anyone else Rick Perez sent his way. He made nearly 40 percent of his 3’s last season. Saturday Varano was 0-for-5 from 3-point range, 3-for-13 overall.
The Red Knights get a supreme defensive effort from all five spots. There’s no weak link, no one to pick on. The Explorers seemed overwhelmed at times by the non-stop effort they were confronted with.
“In practice, we’re conditioned to run and play defense hard,” said Alcantara, “so in games we can tell when we’re pushing up on them that they start getting tired. That’s when we turn the switch up and go harder.”
That happened over the final 10 minutes when Reading doubled its game-long 10-point lead. The Explorers turned it over on four straight possessions early in the fourth quarter and the Red Knights — Alcantara, in particular — pounced.
The 6-4 senior scored in transition, followed with a 3-pointer, and then a free throw. When Rodriguez fed Joey Chapman for a breakaway layup — for his game-high sixth assist — it was 44-26.
“We didn’t come in here with that attitude (that we’d win by 20),” Alcantara said. “We came in here with a cool head and made sure we did what we had to do, made sure we follow our habits, follow the game plan, and you see the results.”
Alcantara scored a career-high 28 points but it came so efficiently, and so within the flow of what Reading does, that it seemed like half that total.
Some of it came in transition, when he was either in the lead, taking passes from Rodriguez, or the trailer cleaning up misses. Mostly it came in the set offense when he’d flash into the paint and find the ball delivered so crisply he’d have an open look.
Of all the things the Knights did well Saturday — their defensive slides, taking charges, controlling the boards (by 41-30 margin) — ball movement was at the top of the list. They whipped it around the court as though it were a hot rock.
“We’re just trying to move the ball and get everybody a look,” said Rodriguez, “keep everybody happy.”
They had a chance to hold the ball for a final shot twice, at the end of the first and third quarters, and converted each time. On the first Rodriguez flashed into the paint and Chapman found him for a bucket at the buzzer. On the next Rodriguez drove, then dished to the wing where Myles Grey knocked down a 3-pointer.
While some were surprised at seeing Reading beat up on a top Philly team so handily, Alcantara wasn’t.
“They’re good, but we’re also good, too,” he reminded. “We have D1 talent on our team. It doesn’t matter who we play, we’re just gonna go at ’em our hardest, and we’re always going to win, because we play for each other.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Reading High | 18 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 52 |
| La Salle College | 9 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 32 |
| READING HIGH | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| R. Rodriguez | 3-8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
| Grey | 3-10 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 3 | 8 | 7 |
| Davis | 2-4 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Alcantara | 11-18 | 3-7 | 3-7 | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| Chapman | 1-8 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| Burdine | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Walker | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| A.Rodriguez | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Sosa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 22-57 | 4-10 | 4-13 | 12 | 38/41 | 52 |
| LA SALLE | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Brown | 4-10 | 4-4 | 0-2 | 0 | 6 | 12 |
| Williams | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Varano | 3-13 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 1 | 6 | 6 |
| Simmons | 3-10 | 4-4 | 1-3 | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| Jennings | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Seibrlich | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Shields | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sorge | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Rivers | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bartchak | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 11-41 | 8-8 | 2-14 | 2 | 28/30 | 32 |