Final Four the final stop in courageous tournament run by Red Knights
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
LITITZ — His Reading High team kept pushing and pushing and finally, late in the third quarter, Francis Camara could feel a breakthrough coming.
“I told the guys: ‘We’ve got ’em, they’re about to break,’ ” the Red Knights’ first-year coach said, “they’re about to break, keep at it.’ . . . then, boom! They make a play.”
Central York didn’t break as the Red Knights’ other opponents in the PIAA Tournament had.
The seasoned, balanced Panthers held fast Tuesday against Reading’s fullcourt pressure, protected and moved the ball well, and eventually pulled away for a convincing 79-65 victory in a Class 6A semifinal before a standing room only crowd at Warwick High School.
“We tried to match their ferocity,” Central coach Jeff Hoke said of Reading after securing his program’s first trip to championship game, “and we did good.”
The Panthers (28-3) will play Parkland, a 59-51 winner over Archbishop Wood, Saturday at Giant Center at 8 for the PIAA championship trophy, one the proud Red Knights will hang onto for just a few more days before a new champ is crowned.
After a stirring rout of Coatesville last week in the quarterfinals the Red Knights (22-11) were brimming with confidence and playing their best ball of an oft-trying season.
They came out confidently Tuesday and led by five points midway through the first quarter after Yadiel Cruz pulled in a long Weshly Rosario outlet pass and scored in transition.
They were still within 34-31 when Cruz scored again in the final minute of the first half. Central York caught a break in the final second of the half as 6-6 Greg Guidinger was fouled on a 3-point attempt. He drained all three shots for a six-point halftime lead.
The Panthers pushed it to 10 early in the third quarter when 6-8 junior Ben Rill scored on tip-ins on consecutive trips, and the Red Knights were chasing the rest of the way.
They were unable to catch up because they couldn’t get stops. Rill finished with 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Guidinger, his program’s all-time scoring leader, scored 22. They got 13 points from junior Ben Natal, who like Guidinger and Rill has over 1,000 career.
The Red Knights pressed and trapped but couldn’t stop the Panthers, whose 79 points matched the second-most scored against Reading (in regulation) this season. The only time Reading allowed more was in its season-opener, a 90-73 loss at Central York.
The Red Knights held Coatesville to 44 points and Erie McDowell to 47 (in overtime) but they never found a way to slow down Central, which scored 20 or more points in six of its eight quarters against Reading this season.
“They’re good,” allowed Camara. “We just couldn’t execute efficiently as much as we wanted to today, and you’ve gotta give credit to those guys: Their big three played very well, their role players played very well, their coach did an amazing job spacing the floor and trying to make sure we couldn’t help on the big guy in the post.”
Central scored in the halfcourt, with Rill doing damage inside and Guidinger knocking down three first-quarter 3’s, and it scored in the open court, breaking Reading’s pressure several times.
“We (knew) we’re not gonna stop ’em,” Hoke joked, “so we’ve gotta keep scoring.”
Nick Chapman scored 14 first-half points on the way to 16 for Reading. Rosario scored 13. And Cruz, as usual, led the way with 21, scoring his 1,000th career point off an inside feed from Chapman late in the third quarter.
Cruz, who finished with 1,010 points in two seasons at Reading, had just six points at halftime and struggled to get shots off against Central’s bigs. The 6-2 senior is adept at getting shots off against bigger guys but this time he had a couple rejected, was tied up once by Rill, and shot just 6-of-15, including 0-for-5 from beyond the arc.
Like Khary Mauras in 2016 and Robby Pollard in 1994, Cruz topped the scoring milestone in his final game.
The fact that he had a chance to make a run at a grand is a testament to him and his teammates, who extended their season well beyond what most thought possible.
They returned just one starter from the 32-1 championship team and found themselves 7-6 at midseason. They continued to grow throughout and hit stride in the state tournament when they won at Chester, beat the District 10 champ McDowell and boat-raced a Coatesville team that had beaten them by 18 two months earlier.
“A lot of people doubted us,” said Osumanu, “they didn’t expect us to be here.”
“The reason our kids were able to get to the Final Four is because they’re fighters,” Camara said. “This is second nature for them.”
The game got away from the Red Knights in the fourth quarter when they began fouling and the Panthers kept hitting. Rill made 7-of-10 from the line in the final quarter and 10-of-14 overall.
The lead grew to 20 in the final minute. As Central’s Brooklyn Nace headed to the foul line with 1:02 left Cruz and Chapman stood side by side along the lane, bent at the waist, heads bowed, their body language revealing that they knew their courageous fight was over.
Camara told them later to hold their heads high; what they did this season was inspiring.
“No one thought we would be here,” Camara said. “We thought we would be here. We’re exactly where we belong. We just didn’t finish. We ran into a better team today.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Central York | 20 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 79 |
| Reading High | 19 | 12 | 12 | 22 | 65 |
| Panthers (28-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Brown | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Natal | 5-13 | 0-0 | 3-7 | 0 | 3 | 13 |
| Guidinger | 7-12 | 5-5 | 3-7 | 2 | 7 | 22 |
| Jackson | 0-3 | 2-4 | 0-3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Rill | 9-13 | 10-14 | 0-0 | 0 | 7 | 28 |
| Layer | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Suchanic | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| Nace | 1-1 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Woodard | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ruppert | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pease | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ludvig | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 26-61 | 20-29 | 7-21 | 7 | 30/32 | 79 |
| Red Knights (22-11) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Cruz | 6-15 | 9-9 | 0-5 | 0 | 5 | 21 |
| Camara | 1-5 | 3-5 | 1-3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Chapman | 5-8 | 6-8 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| Rosario | 5-8 | 2-2 | 1-3 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| Osumanu | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Sosa | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Beatty | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Burgess | 1-3 | 2-2 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Totals | 20-42 | 22-26 | 3-16 | 7 | 17/21 | 65 |
Turnovers: Central York 10, Reading High 12. Team rebounds: Central York 2, Reading High 4.
