Fleetwood title hopes shot down by Big Spring’s 3-point barrage
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Matt Gaffney — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
The Fleetwood Tigers were cruising along Tuesday night, holding a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead over Big Spring in the District 3 4A semifinal.
Only 3:41 stood between the second-seeded Tigers and a return trip to the Giant Center for another shot at a district championship.
Then Aidan Sallie happened.
The 6-3 junior drained four 3-pointers over the final 72 seconds to pull Big Spring within two points before teammate Jake Knouse hit a game-winning trey with 10 seconds remaining to stun the Tigers 62-61 on their home floor.
“You’ve gotta give (Sallie) credit,” Fleetwood coach Terry Sitler said. “We were in his face but there’s not much you can do when someone’s hitting 3’s like that.”
Sixth-seeded Big Spring (18-5) advances to the 4A final to fifth-seeded Eastern York, a 51-44 winner over Berks Catholic.
Sallie, who had a game-high 34 points and a career-high eight 3-pointers, hit one contested 3 after another. Meanwhile, the Tigers struggled all night from the foul line, hitting on only 6-of-23.
“It’s amazing,” Sallie said. “There’s nothing more special than this feeling. We want to keep it going. This is only the second time that the school’s ever made it to the district championship and all I can say is we’re not done yet.”
Big Spring faced multiple double-digit deficits and kept clawing back but never able to get closer than three until Knouse’s shot gave them their first and only lead.
“It didn’t start the way we wanted,” said Bulldogs coach Jason Creek, “but that’s kind of been the story of our team all year long.
“We constantly come back. We fight hard and we have a gritty group so it’s not surprising.”
The Tigers (20-4) held the lead from the opening minute of the game.
It looked like they might run the Bulldogs right out of the gym as they jumped to a big first quarter lead behind the hot shooting of Liam Hilburt.
The 6-foot senior went scorched earth as he hit his first six 3-pointers to help the Tigers to a 15-point advantage.
He finished with a school-record eight 3-pointers and a career-high 24 points. (The previous record was six 3’s in a game.)
“We told Liam that if they clamp on the zone a lot, we’re going to have to open them up a little,” Sitler said. “And he opened them up. But he couldn’t care less (about the record). He wanted a ‘W.’ ”
Sallie was masterful all night, matching each of Hilburt’s 3’s with one of his own. He took his performance to another level in the fourth quarter as he drained one tough shot after another with Tigers draped all over him.
“He’s awesome, he’s a stud,” said Creek. “Not only is he a clutch basketball player and a really good basketball player but he’s a great kid too. He’s the kind of kid you want to have in your life and you want to be around because he’s good people.”
Foul shooting has been the Tigers’ Achilles heel all season — they entered the game shooting just 50.8 percent as a team — and Big Spring looked to take advantage as it tried cut into Fleetwood’s lead.
“We knew that they had a little weakness at the free throw line so we jumped on that a little earlier in the fourth than we normally would,” Creek said.
“When we were up by 11 with a little over two minutes to go, we knew we could beat their trap and get the ball inside every time,” Sitler said, “but they were fouling us before we could even get the ball close to inside.”
Seventeen missed free throws look huge in a one-point loss but there was more to it than that, Sitler said.
“We didn’t lose this game at the foul line,” he said. “We didn’t lose this game in the fourth quarter. We lost this all throughout the game. We had a 17-2 lead in the first quarter and we didn’t step on them right there. And we made mistakes by taking shots we shouldn’t have in the second and third quarters.”
Despite the heartbreak for the Tigers, there is still business to tend to.
“We need to get over this and get ready for practice tomorrow because we have to go over to Berks Catholic on Thursday,” said Sitler. “I am very confident about the leadership I have. We’re going to get over this, regroup and be ready. That’s the way these players are. They don’t like to lose.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Big Spring | 7 | 20 | 6 | 29 | 62 |
| Fleetwood | 22 | 7 | 12 | 20 | 61 |
| Bulldogs (18-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Martinez | 5-9 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| Sallie | 12-22 | 2-2 | 8-11 | 1 | 6 | 34 |
| Hodge | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Knouse | 5-12 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| Heckendorn | 3-10 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Walker | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Stewart | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 25-55 | 2-2 | 10-21 | 4 | 25 | 62 |
Turnovers: 12 Team Rebounds: 1
| Tigers (20-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Soumas | 5-10 | 0-7 | 0-2 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Herb | 1-5 | 2-8 | 0-1 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Svoboda | 6-9 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
| Hilburt | 8-11 | 0-0 | 8-11 | 2 | 1 | 24 |
| Musitano | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Ryan | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Senna | 2-4 | 3-4 | 1-3 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Totals | 14-24 | 6-23 | 9-17 | 12 | 17 | 61 |
Turnovers: 8 Team rebounds: 2.
