Savvy, playoff-tested Saints and Golden Knights to battle for Giant Center berth
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(Correct, to show Class 4A championship game is Friday.)
Eastern York entered the District 3 Class 4A Tournament after a rather non-descript season and as the No. 5 seed, but Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly knew better than to count out the Golden Knights.
He thought they had the talent to make a run at the championship last season; he took note when they won two PIAA Tournament games after a fifth-place finish in the district tournament.
When they brought three starters back, then added Troy Sowers – who’s won three district championships at two previous stops – as their coach they became championship contenders.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Esterly said, looking ahead to Tuesday’s semifinal at Berks Catholic at 7.
The Saints (21-3) are the two-time defending district champs and the No. 1 seed but Esterly knows they’ll have to be at their best to make it back to Giant Center for Friday afternoon’s 4:30 championship game.
The Golden Knights (16-8) have a pair of bigs, including 6-7 junior Carter Wamsley, a Division I prospect and 1,000-point scorer.
If Berks Catholic can get past Eastern it could be looking at a district championship rematch against second-seeded Fleetwood (20-3), which is at home against No. 6 Big Spring Tuesday at 7.
Eastern had trouble getting over the hump in districts the past two seasons, and that carried over to this season: It finished third in Division II of the YCIAA, behind York Suburban and West York, then were bumped out in the league semifinals.
Sowers found encouragement in the latest loss, to top-seeded Central York, and game in which the Golden Knights had the lead in the final minutes. They have been troubled on the offensive end at times this season but put up 65 points and played well despite being at a neutral site.
Location has been an issue for Eastern: It is 9-0 at home, 7-8 elsewhere. (The Saints are 10-1 in Wolf Gymnasium.)
Sowers hopes that after a resounding 25-point win in the district opener at Octorara those road woes are behind his team.
“Prior to two weeks ago, I would’ve said: ‘Holy Moly we can’t play on the road,’ ” Sowers said. “Then we almost beat Central, and we shot 65 percent in our last game. I’m feeling better about how we’re shooting on the road now.”
Wamsley averages a team-best 15.6 points and nine rebounds a game. Junior point guard Brady Seitz, whose father, brother, and sister were all 1,000-point scorers, averages 8.8 points and leads the team with 47 3-pointers.
The key guy could be 6-5 senior Justin Strausbaugh, a college football prospect who never played organized basketball until Sowers pulled him off the playgrounds before this season. The move’s been a revelation for the Knights: He’s averaging 15.5 points and a team-best 11 rebounds. He had a team-high 20 points in the win over Octorara.
“The (other) kids were telling me he’ll dunk on your head in the park,” Sowers said. “I said: ‘We don’t have any guys like that right now.’ ”
Sowers had a lot of guys like that when he coached at York High for 10 years, winning a pair of District 3 championships and reaching the PIAA championship game in 2009. He didn’t have anyone who could throw the ball down a few years later when he was coaching the girls at Spring Grove but he collected a third district championship all the same.
All told, he’s won 369 games.
Sowers knows how to maneuver his way through the playoffs; after last season’s state run most of his players do, too.
“Going to Final Eight, they have a good taste of what playoff basketball is,” he said. “They lived it last year, they know the playoff pressure, they know the state tournament. I was lucky to come into a situation where they have some playoff experience and savvy.”
The Saints, who have won five district championships, have that, too. They’ve got All-Berks center Josh McKoy, who had 16 points and eight rebounds in their quarterfinal win over Middletown, and all-division pick Parker Nein, who averages 16.8 points and leads the team with 48 3’s.
What they don’t have is All-Berks guard Kingston McKoy, who was lost for the season with a broken leg five weeks ago. That makes defending the Saints considerably less complicated.
“He would’ve changed everything (with our defensive match-ups),” allowed Sowers, “but they’re still very, very good.
“They have their two studs, everybody knows that. (Josh) McKoy is a very versatile 6-5 big. We’re gonna have to not foul him and make sure we contest all of his shots. (Nein) has gone off for 30 and 27 (points), so we’re gonna have to make sure we don’t give him open looks, make him work for every shot he gets. He’s a tremendous weapon.”
Fleetwood will have to be on the defensive against Big Spring (18-5), which has a pair of 1,000-point scorers in junior Aiden Sallie and senior Jake Knouse. The Bulldogs also have a freshman whiz, Ayden Martin; he scored a career-high 26 points in a 56-51 quarterfinal win over Littlestown.
The Tigers can play defense: They’re allowing a league-low 40.9 points per game. They have allowed 50 or more points just three times; in each of those games they lost.
They’ve got their own 1,000-point scorer in all-division forward Aiden Soumas and balanced scoring, with Nate Herb and Svoboda each averaging over 10 points per game; Soumas averaged 17.9.
Big Spring clinched its first PIAA Tournament bid with its last win. Fleetwood’s been to the tournament a bunch, though it had been 33 years since their last appearance before they made it last year. Now they’ll be in the state tournament in back-to-back years for the first time since 1983 and 1984.