Berks Catholic again knocked out in state tournament opener on home court
By Sam Cavalieri — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Seconds into Berks Catholic’s PIAA Class 4A Tournament opener, Snip Esterly raised his voice.
“What are we doing?”
The Saints coach asked that question numerous times early in the first quarter. Almost pleading with his team for a response as they turned the ball over four times in the first 70 seconds and 10 times in the first quarter against visiting Uniontown Friday.
Berks Catholic figured things out and took the lead into halftime but another poor start in the third quarter spelled doom in an 81-69 loss that ended its season.
“It was like a team that didn’t practice for the last week,” Esterly said of the start. “We did nothing that we went over in practice. I don’t know what happened.”
The District 3 champion Saints (20-5) trailed 21-8 when Esterly called a timeout. After that, Jack Miller ignited what was a stagnant offense. His back-to-back 3’s just 30 seconds apart gave Berks Catholic life at the end of the first quarter and started an 11-0 run that closed the gap to 21-19 with 5:37 left in the half.
Berks Catholic went on its second 11-0 run of the half to take a 36-30 lead before heading to halftime 36-33.
“(We knew) this could be our last game so we said if we get down just chip away possession by possession and that’s what we did,” senior Ryan Koch said. “Jack hit two big 3’s, we got some rebounds and got some momentum going into half.”
Koch, who scored his 1,000th point in the third quarter, was a big presence for the Saints both as a scorer and on the glass.
He scored a game-high 25 points and had 11 rebounds in his final game. He also seemed to be the only Saint who could hold onto a rebound.
“Ryan was outstanding and that’s what you need out of a senior,” Esterly said. “He was fantastic and I am very proud of him getting his 1,000th. It means a lot.”
The Red Raiders (21-5) opened the second half by scoring the first 10 points to take control.
Despite the turnovers and the poor defensive rebounding the Saints had every chance to win it in the fourth quarter.
Jaxon Geddio was headed to the foul line with an opportunity to make it a two-point game with 2:16 remaining. Before he got there Josiah Jordan was assessed a technical foul. When Geddio went 1-for-2 and Jamire Braxton went 1-for-2 for the Raiders it was essentially an empty possession.
One minute later another technical foul was assessed on the Saints, due to a protest after a foul call on what appeared to be a clean block pinned to the glass.
Bakari Wallace went to the line for four free throws and made three, essentially putting the game away at 77-69. The Red Raiders shot 16-of-21 in the fourth quarter at the free throw line.
“It should never happen, we lost our composure, it’s that simple,” Esterly said of the technical fouls.
The Saints were without freshman Kingston McCoy, who fell ill while at school Friday. McKoy has been Esterly’s first option off the bench and had been playing starter’s minutes most of the second half of the season. He’s become a key defensive stopper.
His loss was felt as Calvin Winfrey and Wallace, two small guards, combined to score 41 points.
“Killed us, absolutely killed us, that’s what we missed because they had three guards very explosive to the basket,” Esterly said. “Kingston would have covered one of them. We couldn’t go man because we don’t have three outstanding defenders who can stop the penetration of quick guards.”
Uniontown also benefited on the offensive glass and created second and third chances, many times off missed free throws. K’Adrian McLee had 13 rebounds to lead the way and got support from the guards, who chiseled their way to create loose balls or to cause turnovers after a Berks Catholic rebound.
“We had like five rebounds in our hands they flat out took from us,” Esterly said. “Like a little kid coming up and just grabbing it from you.”
Tanner Uphold was a difference-maker off the bench for Uniontown. He quelled some of the Berks Catholic mojo when he hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer before half. Jordan said the energy seemed to dip a little in the locker room at halftime. Uphold finished with eight points after averaging less than four points per game.
This Berks Catholic class will be remembered for two District 3 titles and two 1,000 point scorers in Jordan and Koch.
“Hitting a milestone is nice but I wanted the win more than the thousand,” Koch said. “But it’s a nice accomplishment.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Uniontown | 21 | 12 | 18 | 30 | 81 |
| Berks Catholic | 14 | 22 | 10 | 23 | 69 |
| Red Raiders (20-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Grooms | 3-10 | 4-6 | 2-6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| Winfrey | 6-10 | 8-12 | 3-6 | 1 | 1 | 23 |
| McLee | 2-5 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 13 | 5 |
| Wallace | 6-8 | 6-7 | 0-1 | 2 | 3 | 18 |
| Braxton | 3-8 | 5-7 | 1-3 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| Garner | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Uphold | 3-3 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Richardson | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Hager | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 24-46 | 25-35 | 8-19 | 9 | 30-31 | 81 |
| Saints (23-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Geddio | 2-3 | 2-3 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Jordan | 6-13 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 6 | 1 | 13 |
| Koch | 8-15 | 6-10 | 3-8 | 2 | 11 | 25 |
| Miller | 3-6 | 1-2 | 3-6 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| J. McKoy | 3-4 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Nein | 2-5 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Gaffney | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 24-46 | 14-23 | 7-18 | 9 | 23-26 | 69 |
Turnovers: Uniontown 15, Berks Catholic 16.
