Fleetwood races past Schuylkill Valley to clinch second straight Berks III title

(This story will be updated later tonight with additional details and postgame reaction.)

Aiden Soumas and Nate Herb combined for 48 points as Fleetwood raced past visiting Schuylkill Valley 78-63 Friday night to clinch its second straight Berks Conference Division III title.

Herb, who scored a career-high 22 points, hit a 3-pointer to cap a 12-0 run that helped the Tigers (9-0, 18-1) break open a close game.

Soumas scored a career-high 26 points, 15 in the first half.

Jake Karnish had a triple-double for the Tigers, with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Elijah Houser scored a team- and career-high 19 points for the Panthers (6-3, 12-5), who are in strong position to qualify for the Berks Conference playoffs in the Berks III-IV runner-up spot.

The win gives the Tigers a season sweep of the Panthers; they took the first game 59-44.

Schuylkill Valley erased most of an 11-point third-quarter deficit, pulling within 48-47 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter on Dominic Giuffre’s transition basket. Giuffre scored seven fourth-quarter points and finished with 18.

Fleerwood responded with a 12-0 run, Soumas scoring four points and Liam Hilburt and Herb contributing 3-pointers. Hilburt hit three 3’s and scored all of his 11 points in the second half.

The 78 points matches a season-high for Fleetwood and is the most allowed by Schuylkill Valley this season. The Panthers were allowing 52.9 points per game.

Fleetwood has won back-to-back division titles for the first time in more than 60 years, since it won three in a row from 1953-56.

The Tigers are ranked No. 2 in the District 3 Class 4A power ratings and are headed for the best regular season in program history. Their 18 victories are the most in the program since 1990. They have recorded three straight winning seasons for the first time since 1981-84.

	1	2	3	4	Final
Schuylkill Valley	15	18	12	18	63
Fleetwood	26	11	11	30	78

Panthers (12-5)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Giuffre	7-16	2-4	2-4	0	6	18
Zimmerman	1-4	0-0	0-1	1	1	2
Houser	7-10	5-8	0-2	2	4	19
Rajnath	3-9	3-3	1-4	1	0	10
Hohenadel	2-7	4-4	1-5	0	0	9
Faulk	0-1	1-2	0-0	1	1	1
Spotts	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Gerner	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	0	4
Johnson	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Miley	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Kemmerer	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
McGonigle	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Dissinger	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0
Totals	22-52	15-21	4-16	5	15-17	63

Tigers (18-1)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Holburt	3-5	2-2	3-3	0	4	11
Soumas	10-13	4-4	2-4	7	4	26
Williams	1-4	0-0	02	2	3	3
Herb	8-10	3-5	3-4	2	2	22
Karnish	5-7	3-3	1-1	10	10	14
Svoboda	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	2	2
Loy	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Reimert	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Sandt	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Vorse	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	28-41	12-14	9-14	18	25-28	78

Turnovers: Schuylkill Valley 7, Fleetwood 18.