Can Bulldogs repeat near-perfect playoff effort against top-seeded Saints?
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“Finally.”
Those were the first words out of the mouth of Wilson coach Matt Coldren after a 74-51 win over Exeter in the opening round of the Berks Conference Tournament Monday night in West Lawn.
Finally, Coldren said, he saw his young but talented team play a complete game, one which saw the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (15-8) move the ball effectively, find open shooters and knock down shots.
They faced game-long fullcourt pressure yet turned the ball over just once in the first half and three times through three quarters.
And they defended, holding the league’s most lethal offense to a season-low point total.
“We finally played a full game,” said the winningest coach in program history. “Our energy level and our enthusiasm and our execution level was there for the full game.”
Coldren hadn’t seen that kind of all-around game since Christmastime when the Bulldogs blew past a Central York team that will open the District 3 Class 6A Tournament next week as the top seed.
The Bulldogs will need to be at their best Wednesday when they face top-seeded Berks Catholic (20-2) in a semifinal at Santander Arena at 7, the third of four games in Berks’ Big House.
That kind of sharp performance seemingly came out of nowhere. Wilson limped into the postseason, losing three straight games down the stretch, including one to a Harrisburg team that finished 6-16 this year and that lost to the Bulldogs by 32 points last season.
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.
“That’s been our focus the last week,” Coldren said. “We changed our motion offense so that guys were in better position to get him the ball, and he was in better position to receive it. It works when everybody’s on the same page.”
The Bulldogs didn’t just score from the post against Exeter; they scored in transition and they scored from the perimeter. They shot a sizzling 68 percent in the first half and 55 percent for the game. They made their first six 3-pointers. Correll Akings hit both his on the way to 19 points; Madyx Gruber made both of his in a 17-point effort.
“We had an up and down season, for sure,” said Levan, a junior. “We just wanted to capitalize on our best parts and hit the playoffs as good as we can. We wanted to put our best game (out there), like when we played Central York (a 61-50 win).”
Berks Catholic experienced a similarly rough finish to the regular season and had a similarly easy quarterfinal, beating eighth-seeded Antietam 61-38. They led 19-2 after one period.
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 were winning 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. He did everything but man the snack bar during halftime.
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.
“They’re a different team (now),” Coldren said. “Anyone who tells you it’s not is not being honest. It’s totally a different team.”
Without Kingston McKoy, seniors Josh McKoy and Parker Nein have each had to take on an expanded role.
Josh delivered a career-high 33 points to help his team dig out of a first-half hole at Wyomissing the first game after his brother was injured. He scored 28 in the season finale against Daniel Boone and had 27 in Monday’s win over Antietam. He has averaged 20.6 points over the last eight games.
Nein provided a career-high 27 points against Reading after Kingston was injured in the first half and topped that with 30 in a close win at York Catholic. He scored 11 first-quarter points Monday against Antietam and finished with 19.
“They’re (each) more aggressive (now),” Coldren said.
One thing that hasn’t changed for the Saints is their defense: They’re still playing well on that end despite missing their stopper. They’re ranked No. 2 in the league in scoring defense and have allowed just 71 3-pointers, third-fewest in the league.
To advance to the championship game for the 10th time in their 13-year history they’ll have to do it on the defensive end and come up with effective match-ups against Wilson’s top scorers Akings (11.9), Gruber (10.7) and Levan (9.4).
