Defensive stopper Elijah Komoro helps Saints shut down Eagles in PIAA opener
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(Corrected to show Berks Catholic’s next opponent.)
By Mike Mitchell Jr. — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
ORWIGSBURG — There’s an old adage that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.
There’s one more: Snip Esterly-coached basketball teams play defense. Always.
The Saints got a huge individual defensive effort from Elijah Komoro and a great overall team defensive performance in stifling Blue Mountain 43-32 Friday in a PIAA Tournament Class 4A opener on the Eagles’ home floor.
“We tell our guys day in and day out: There is no such thing as an off defensive day,” said Esterly.
Blue Mountain (23-5), the District 11 runner-up, came into the game averaging 64.3 points. The Saints held them to their lowest point total of the season.
Komoro held Tyeirre Meade, who averages 14.1 points, to seven points on 3-of-15 shooting; two of those baskets came on a steal and electrifying dunk.
“Coach told me in practice that he had 49 3’s and he goes hard to the basket,” said Komoro. “I worked on getting a high hand up to contest the 3 and keep him in front of me.”
Komoro, a 6-1 senior, is on the floor for one reason: His relentless defense. He finished with a career-high nine points Friday but came in averaging less than a basket per game.
No matter: Friday he made a difference with his defensive skills.
“Elijah had an incredible defensive effort,” Esterly said. “He is so quick and he blocked two or three shots, as well.”
(Tim Macrina photo)
Berks Catholic, which finished third in the District 3 Tournament, advances to meet District 12 champ Neumann-Goretti, an 86-63 winner Friday over Littlestown.
They’ll meet Tuesday, site and time to be determined.
The state playoff win was the first for Berks Catholic since 2018.
On the offensive end it was a tale of two halves for the Saints (23-4), with different players stepping up in each half.
Parker Nein hit two deep 3’s in the first quarter and scored 11 of his game-high 13 points in the first half. Nein also collected nine rebounds.
“Parker kept us in the game in the first half,” Esterly said. “He hit those two deep 3’ and rebounded like crazy.”
After being held scoreless in the first half, All-Berks center Josh McKoy scored 11 points in the second half and threw three spectacular passes to Komoro for layups to help the Saints pull away.
“We went to our weave in the second half,” said Esterly. “We feel like it helps us with spacing, and creates some mismatches when teams switch on it. It’s something we’ve used a lot in the last four or five games.”
“Coach told me at halftime I had to turn it up,” said McKoy. “So that’s what I did. I started driving to the basket. (The guy) guarding Elijah in the fourth quarter, he came up to help on me and I dished to Elijah.”
Komoro scored four points in the last three minutes off feeds from McKoy to ice the game.
“The credit goes to Josh,” said Komoro. “He gave me great passes and all I had to do was finish a layup.”
The win was the 200th in the postseason Esterly. Berks’ all-time winningest coach was quick to deflect credit for the milestone.
“I’m just happy and fortunate to have coached so many talented players and teams both at Central Catholic and Berks Catholic,” said Esterly, who has 815 wins overall in 34 seasons, sixth-most in Pennsylvania boys basketball history. “I’ve had great assistant coaches at both places and I’ve just really enjoyed it a ton.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 11 | 10 | 9 | 13 | 43 |
| Blue Mountain | 5 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 32 |
| Saints (23-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Dominguez | 1-4 | 2-2 | 0-2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Nein | 5-13 | 0-0 | 3-6 | 2 | 9 | 13 |
| J. McKoy | 4-13 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 4 | 10 | 9 |
| Altimar | 1-3 | 3-4 | 0-2 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Komoro | 4-9 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Suski | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Totals | 16-44 | 5-8 | 6-16 | 12 | 33 | 43 |
| Eagles (23-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Meade | 3-15 | 0-0 | 1-6 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Grace | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Miller | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| Feisel | 2-7 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Thomas | 5-13 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 0 | 8 | 12 |
| Brayford | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Heim | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Baldwin | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 13-48 | 1-2 | 5-21 | 6 | 26 | 32 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 8, Blue Mountain 6. Team rebounds: Berks Catholic 2, Blue Mountain 2.
