Eagles hope Senior Night win over Saints provides boost heading into postseason
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Matt Gaffney — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Exeter’s game against Berks Catholic Thursday didn’t mean anything in terms of the Berks Conference Division II race; the Saints clinched that earlier in the week.
Still, to the Eagles the game meant everything.
“We’ve been playing together for years now and to go out here and get a win (on Senior Night), we’ll always remember this,” Exeter’s Reece Garvin said after his team overcame a 13-point deficit to beat the Saints 63-55 at Reiffton. “Tonight meant a lot to us.”
It was appropriate that Exeter (8-3, 13-7) was led by a trio of seniors: Kevin Saenz had a team-high 17 points, Garvin had 16 and Alex Kelsey 12.
“The seniors led the way,” said Exeter coach Jeff VanGorder. “Alex started us, Kevin got us going and Reece – I can’t speak highly enough about how they led the charge.”
VanGorder said beating a qualify opponent such as Berks Catholic was important after his team lost to Wilson by one point, Muhlenberg by five and the Saints by eight on Jan. 11.
“We had been in a bunch of close games with a high atmosphere, so it was huge for us to pull this out and know that we can do that,” he said.
Despite the buzz of a big-game atmosphere the Eagles got off to a slow start. The Saints went on an 11-0 run over the last four minutes of the first quarter to lead 13-7.
Berks Catholic junior Zach Suski, who came off the bench to score a game- and career-high 18 points, scored on a buzzer-beating drive to end the first quarter.
The Saints (10-1, 18-2) increased their lead to 13 halfway through the second quarter as Suski provided a huge lift, scoring 10 points in the quarter.
Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly, who saw his team lose for the second straight time after an 18-0 start, was encouraged by the emergence of Suski and senior Armanni Dominguez, who also set a career high with 16 points.
“They are stepping up and that’s exactly what we need,” Esterly said. “Somebody had to. Armanni has been doing that and Zach had a great game tonight.”
The Saints have needed their role players to step up after Kingston McKoy was lost for the season with a broken leg.
Things weren’t looking promising for Exeter when Garvin and Kelsey each picked up their third fouls before halftime; the Eagles headed to the locker room trailing by 11.
Whatever Van Gorder did at halftime worked because the Eagles looked like a different team in the second half. They cranked up the fullcourt pressure and forced a multitude of turnovers to chip away at the lead, pulling within 42-41 after three quarters.
Berks Catholic’s Parker Nein, who came into the game averaging a team-high 17.4, was held to a season-low five points. When Nein went to the bench with his fourth foul with 7:51 left in the game Exeter made its move.
Garvin hit two free throws to give the Eagles their first lead since the early minutes. After the Saints’ Josh McKoy (14 points) hit a trey, Exeter’s Aidan Dauble answered with a 3-pointer to take the lead right back, 46-45.
Dauble, who scored nine of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, is a sophomore who plays with a calmness beyond his years.
“What a competitor,” VanGorder said. “I tell people all the time: I forget Aidan’s a sophomore. He’s very mature. He played in big-time moments last year, so I think bigger moments for him get him more ready to rock and roll.”
The Saints held their last lead with two minutes left before the Eagles finished the game on a 9-0 run, capped by Brady Murray’s three-point play with 1:03 left. Murray’s only points of the night gave Exeter a 59-55 lead and proved to be a backbreaker for the Saints.
Despite the loss Esterly was happy with his team’s performance as they continue to adapt to life without their floor general, Kingston McKoy.
“Exeter is a team that can win the county (championship),” Esterly said. “I’m really happy with the way we stayed with them. We were right with them at the end, we just had too many turnovers.”
For the Saints to have success in the postseason Esterly knows his team needs to clean some things up.
“We have to make sure we have better ball movement and spread things out because teams are just waiting for Josh (McKoy) down low,” he said. “The biggest thing is taking care of the ball. If we take care of the ball, we’ll be in great shape.”
VanGorder hopes the win is a steppingstone to playoff success.
“We’d love to play well the next two games to put us in position to host for districts,” he said. “We have to bring the intensity and energy from the tip, not settling, and bringing the toughness defensively, and I think we’ll do that.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 13 | 20 | 9 | 13 | 55 |
| Exeter | 7 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 63 |
| Saints (18-2) | FG | FT | Points |
| Nein | 2 | 1-2 | 5 |
| J. McKoy | 4 | 5-9 | 14 |
| Dominguez | 5 | 2-2 | 16 |
| Altimar | 1 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Komoro | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Suski | 7 | 1-3 | 18 |
| Totals | 19 | 9-16 | 55 |
| Eagles (13-7) | FG | FT | Points |
| Saenz | 4 | 9-12 | 17 |
| Garvin | 5 | 5-7 | 16 |
| Kelsey | 3 | 6-7 | 12 |
| Gwitira | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Nester | 1 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Dauble | 4 | 1-2 | 10 |
| Murray | 1 | 1-1 | 3 |
| Flanders | 1 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Redding | 0 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Ware | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Totals | 19 | 23-29 | 63 |
Three-pointers: Berks Catholic: Dominguez 4, Suski 3, J.McKoy. Exeter: Garvin, Dauble.
