Cumberland Valley may feel outnumbered vs. Reading in district final
David Vespignani didn’t need to work up an extensive scouting report for Reading High: The Cumberland Valley coach learned all about the Red Knights’ DNA when they met two seasons ago.
“We were down three with three minutes to go,” said the Eagles coach, who faces Reading Thursday in the District 3 Class 6A championship at Giant Center at 7:45. “We’re feeling like we’re in the game.”
That feeling didn’t last long.
“In three possessions and it went from a three-point game to an 11-point game,” Vespignani said, “and it was game over.”
Ruben Rodriguez and Myles Grey were sophomore starters on that Reading team, which went on to win district and state titles; Amier Burdine and Aris Rodriguez were sophomore role players. They’re seniors now, and they still play the same relentless brand of basketball, attacking on defense, challenging for every rebound, running the court with flare and precision.
The top-seeded Red Knights (26-1) don’t have much length and they’re not particularly deep but the guys on the court play at a high level and with an intensity and passion that’s hard to match.
And they’re winners. The Red Knights are looking for a third straight district championship, something the program hasn’t accomplished in nearly 70 years, and something no Berks team has done since Mount Penn, from 1970-72.
Ruben Rodriguez is on the threshold of an incredible personal achievement: He can become the first Berks boys basketball player to win four district gold medals. He earned one as a freshman starter at Muhlenberg.
The Red Knights have won 17 straight games, and 26 in a row against Pennsylvania competition. Their only loss this season came against nationally ranked Gonzaga College of Washington, D.C, in a tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Reading is ranked No. 48 in the nation and No. 6 in the state (all classifications) by maxpreps.com, and No. 2 in the state in Class 6A, behind Roman Catholic; its 26 wins are the most in the state.
Rubin Rodriguez, a two-time Berks Player of the Year, leads the Berks Conference in scoring at 22.6 points after dropping 42 in a district quarterfinal against Chambersburg. He has 1,900 career points, No. 9 all-time in Berks history.
Aris Rodriguez averages 13.9 points and Grey 13.0. The three senior starters have combined for 121 3-pointers.
The Red Knights are 78-7 the past three season and on the verge of becoming the first to three-peat in District 3’s largest classification since Willie Pegram led the Red Knights to the 1957 Class A title.
Even Billy Owens, considered by many the greatest player in Pennsylvania history, couldn’t carry Carlisle to a district three-peat. (He did, of course, win four state titles.)
Ruben Rodriguez and Grey are such gamers and have such a wealth of big-game experience that even building a big lead against them is no guarantee of beating them. Just ask Cardinal O’Hara, which saw Reading come from 19 down to beat them in December, or Exeter, which had an 11-point fourth-quarter lead in the Berks championship game.
“An opponent makes a little bit of a run on them, and it’s like a light switch (goes off),” Vespignani said. “It goes from a five-point game to a 16-point game in 45 seconds. They’re so good, you can’t relax for a second if you want to have a chance.”
For much of the season Cumberland Valley led Reading in the district power rankings. The Eagles (20-3) won their first 14 games before an injury to starting center Jackson Boone, a 6-6 senior, threw them for a loop. Boone, an all-league second-team pick as a junior, was lost for the year in the Eagles’ 13th game.
It hurt their length, depth and psyche.
“It was like the whole world’s caving in,” Vespignani said. “We had to adjust how we play and figure it out on the fly.”
Shortly after Boone’s injury Cumberland Valley lost to Chambersburg 43-41; Reading used a late rush to beat that team 69-58. The Eagles also lost twice to state-ranked and eventual Mid-Penn Commonwealth champ State College. They entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed.
Cumberland Valley, which didn’t qualify for its league playoffs (only division champs go) had a 17-day layoff before districts started.
Vespignani used that extra practice time to sharpen his squad, and the results have been evident in districts: They handled Wilson 49-38, then beat Lancaster-Lebanon League champ and third-seeded Hempfield 46-35.
“Our kids came out and played really well against Wilson, and that confidence carried over to Hempfield,” Vespignani said.
“Defensively, we’re playing some really good basketball right now, and offensively we’re doing enough,” he said.
Vespignani has an experienced squad. Seniors Nolan Gilbert and Dylan Levis were on the floor against Reading two years ago in that 60-50 regular season loss at Cumberland Valley.
“We’re not surprised we’re in the finals,” Vespignani said. “We earned the two seed and we felt we had the opportunity to get (to the title game).”
He is even less surprised by his opponent. It was hardly a state secret that the Red Knights were the team to beat for the district title.
“You always know if you’re going to advance in District 3 at some point you’re going to run into them,” Vespignani said. “They’re an unbelievably talented team, an unbelievably well-coached team. Sometimes it looks like you’re playing against seven or eight guys because they just play so hard.
“From a pure talent standpoint it’s a different level (than we’ve faced). We know what to expect walking in there.”