Good vibes all around as Red Knights rout ‘Canes, reach PIAA semifinals
ALTOONA – Myles Grey felt the good vibes the moment he stepped foot inside Altoona’s gymnasium Saturday afternoon. It’s where he and his Reading High teammates won a PIAA Class 6A semifinal two years ago on the way to a state championship.
“Winning that game, and the excitement knowing we were gonna go for a state championship,” said Grey, “all those memories came back. It’s a happy place for me.”
Myles and the Red Knights took away more good memories as they built an early 10-point lead and routed New Castle 72-48 to advance to a state semifinal Wednesday against Spring-Ford, a 45-39 winner over State College Saturday.
Ruben Rodriguez scored on a reverse layup three minutes into the game to give the District 3 champion Red Knights (30-1) the lead for good.
The All-State guard had nine points in the first quarter and was personally outscoring New Castle for much of the game. He scored his 25th point three minutes into the third quarter, giving Reading a 45-24 lead.
Rodriguez, who sat much of the fourth quarter, finished with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting. The Rider University recruit is now at 1,980 career points.
“It was just me playing, having fun,” Rodriguez said. “I wasn’t looking at the points. That’s what I love doing, just playing. When I’m playing like that and the points are falling, it makes everything easier for everyone else.”
The WPIAAL runner-up Red Hurricanes (24-4) were no match for the Red Knights on either end of the court.
Defensively, they couldn’t stay in front of Rodriguez, Grey or Aris Rodriguez, each of whom easily got to the basket and combined for 58 points on 25-of-40 shooting.
On the other end they telegraphed passes that Ruben Rodriguez and Grey, overplaying the passing lanes, picked off and turned into easy points.
Ruben Rodriguez’s steal and layup turned into a three-point play and 15-5 lead five minutes into the game. That was one of five first-quarter steals for Reading and one of seven New Castle turnovers.
“They’re really good at controlling the ball, and they have a lot of set plays,” Ruben Rodriguez said. “It was knowing our game plan and knowing what plays they’re looking for and what guys they’re looking for and working extra hard on our denials.
“Our coaches did a great job game-planning, and we knew exactly what to look for. It just makes the job easier. We just made everything hard for (point guard Jonathon Anderson), made everything difficult, and it just started falling into place and they started throwing the ball around when (he) didn’t have it.”
New Castle turned it over 10 times in the first half, Reading just twice.
“Being in the passing lanes was crucial for this game,” said Grey. “That’s a big reason we were able to steal a lot of those passes.”
Yadiel Cruz also had a steal and uncontested layup during a 15-4 Reading bust that made it 19-7 with less than two minutes to go in the first quarter. The lead grew to 15 when Cruz put back a miss early in the second quarter. Ruben Rodriguez had 15 first-half points and Reading led 33-20 at intermission.
Ruben Rodriguez scored Reading’s first eight points of the third quarter, pushing the lead to 41-22 and officially ending any suspense.
The win was the 21st straight for the Red Knights and another in an impressive string of state playoff wins. They have won their three PIAA Tournament games by a combined 80 points; Saturday’s was the closest of the three.
“At this point, it’s win or go home, so you want to go out there earn another 32 minutes,” said Grey. “So we come out hungry; we play with that edge. You can’t come out slow, you can’t come out easy, because that could be our downfall, that could be the reason that we go home.”
The Red Knights won in a rout the last time they played in Altoona, beating Upper St. Clair 68-46. Ruben Rodriguez and Grey were starters on that team; current starters Amier Burdine and Aris Rodriguez were reserves. They’ve been down this road before and it shows in their poise and execution in pressure games.
“We have a lot of experience,” Ruben Rodriguez said. “That comes to show. We did a really good job at controlling the pace. We did a good job of coming down and scoring and taking advantage of their mistakes to extend that lead.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| New Castle | 10 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 48 |
| Reading High | 19 | 14 | 24 | 13 | 72 |
| Red Hurricanes (24-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Young | 8-10 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 18 |
| Boice | 5-10 | 0-0 | 3-7 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| Blundo | 2-7 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Anderson | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| McNight | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Wallace | 4-8 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Totals | 20-39 | 3-4 | 5-17 | 9 | 15-15 | 48 |
| Red Knights (30-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Grey | 7-15 | 2-2 | 0-5 | 0 | 5 | 16 |
| R. Rodriguez | 11-16 | 3-4 | 2-4 | 1 | 6 | 27 |
| A Rodriguez | 7-9 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| Osumanu | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Cruz | 4-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Chapman | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Ortega | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Sosa | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Burgess | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Samuel | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jackson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 31-50 | 7-10 | 3-10 | 7 | 21-23 | 72 |
Turnovers: New Castle 18, Reading High 8.
