Madyx Gruber, Wilson, shoot down Berks Catholic, advance to title game
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
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(This story will be updated later tonight with a full boxscore, additional details and postgame reaction.)
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
Madyx Gruber had a pair of three-point plays in final quarter to help Wilson hold off Berks Catholic’s comeback bid for a 59-46 victory in a Berks Conference semifinal Wednesday at Santander Arena.
Gruber finished with a game- and career-high 31 points, including 13 in the final quarter.
“I was just feeling it tonight,” said the junior guard.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs advance to face either second-seeded Reading High or sixth-seeded Muhlenberg in the championship game Friday at 8 back at Santander. The Red Knights have won the last two Berks title games.
The top-seeded Saints used a 15-0 run to take a 34-30 lead midway through the third quarter.
The Bulldogs answered with a 9-0 run, started when Gruber hit a jumper after taking a long rebound and capped by Correll Akings’ 3-pointer.
Berks Catholic got as close as seven again with two minutes left before Gruber took a long pass from Cam Zullinger and completed a three-point play.
Akings finished with 14 points for Wilson. Josh McKoy and Parker Nein each scored 13 for Berks Catholic.
Wilson was last in the championship game in 2021, when Stevie Mitchell led the Bulldogs to their second straight title and 11th overall.
Berks Catholic advanced to the semifinals with a 61-38 win over eighth-seeded Antietam; they led 19-2 after one period.
Wilson, which ended the regular season with three losses in its final four games, rebounded with a big performance in a 74-51 opening-round victory over Exeter.
In the six days between the regular season finale against Gov. Mifflin and Monday’s game against the fifth-seeded Eagles the Bulldogs went through a transformation. They overhauled things with their inconsistent offensive and focused on getting the ball inside to emerging big Luke Levan, the most skilled all-around center in the league.
“We knew a lot of what happened that (last) week was on our end, us not finishing the job,” said junior Cam Zullinger. “We put a lot of work in over the weekend. We knew what we had to do (against Exeter) and we came out and did it.”
They took what they did at practice onto the floor at gametime and executed to a T, delivering the ball into the post with precision, allowing Levan to score a career-high 22 points, 15 in a near-perfect first half.
The Saints were on pace to become the first unbeaten team in Berks in 14 years before Player of the Year candidate Kingston McKoy was lost with a broken leg early against Reading High Jan. 23. They were 13-0 at the time, put together a big rally to beat the Red Knights, then won their next four games to reach 18-0.
Even though they continued to win they weren’t the same team without the do-it-all McKoy, who ran their offense, was their primary ballhandler against pressure, a leading rebounder, and their defensive stopper. He also scored 14.9 points per game.
It caught up with them when they ran into juggernaut Abington Heights in their 19th game, a 74-47 loss at Wolf Gymnasium. (The Comets enter the postseason 22-0.)
Two days later the Saints, who had already clinched the Berks II title, lost at Exeter, 63-55.
Berks Catholic held off Wilson 44-40 in a crossover game in West Lawn Jan. 20 but what happened that night will have little carryover when the teams meet again Wednesday.
