Berks Catholic remains unbeaten with impressive win at Abington Heights
Berks Catholic remained unbeaten Saturday with an impressive road win, handing District 2 power Abington Heights its first loss, 62-52.
Even Saints coach Snip Esterly was impressed with the game and the first half of his team’s the regular season.
“That was a good team we beat,” said Esterly. “I never thought we would be 11-0. What I’m really happy about is how we’re playing. (Even) if we were 8-3 and playing the way we’re playing right now, I would be happy.”
The Saints (11-0) used a big third quarter to open a 16-point lead against the Comets (9-1), holding them to seven points. Ryan Koch and Josiah Jordan each scored six points in the quarter and the Saints took a 51-35 lead into the final period.
“We limited them to one shot and done, and we happened to make our shots,” Esterly said of the third quarter.
The Comets made it a two-possession game in the fourth quarter when Jordan Shaffer came off the bench and hit three straight 3-pointers. They got no closer.
Koch finished with a game-high 19 points; Jordan scored 18.
Berks Catholic is off to its best start since opening 14-0 in 2011-12, its inaugural season. They finished 28-3 and won county and district titles. That season ended with a loss to Abington Heights in the second round of the PIAA Tournament.
The Comets won the first four meetings in the series before the Saints won 50-41 last year at the Lloyd Wolf Gymnasium. The Saints beat them 36-34 at Abington Heights in 2018-19 but later had to forfeit the game due to a PIAA violation.
The Saints torched the Comets’ match-up zone in last year’s game, hitting 11 3-pointers. They did the same early in Saturday’s game, when Koch hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter and they made seven overall.
“They had to get out of it,” Esterly said of the zone. “The first half we were draining 3’s. Ryan was on fire, Jack (Miller) hit a couple, Josh (McKoy) hit one and they got out of it.”
Berks Catholic is the first team to score over 55 points in a game this season against Abington Heights. The 52 points are the fewest the Comets have scored.
Esterly was happy about everything except the way his team finished the game.
“We’ve got to learn how to take care of games at the end,” he said. “We’re up (16 points) and we let Abington back in it with bad turnovers, bad defensive possessions, missed foul shots. We’ve gotta clean it up. When you’re in a close game those things are gonna bite you.”
The game matched two of the winningest boys basketball coaches in state history. Ken Bianchi of Abington Heights is fourth in all-time wins with 854. Esterly is seventh with 780. Only Trinity’s Larry Kostelac (784) has more wins among District 3 coaches than Esterly.
Jordan, an All-Berks pick as a junior, finished the game with 980 career points. The Saints play at home Monday against Conrad Weiser, then Friday at Muhlenberg in key crossover. They’re in first place in Division 2 of the Berks Conference, two games ahead of Exeter.
