Hoop Notes: Scouts’ holiday plans include visit to New York tournament (updated)

(This story has been updated with results from Wednesday’s games.)

Fourteen of the 18 boys basketball teams in the Berks Conference will be involved in a dozen holiday basketball tournaments next week. None figure to have an experience quite like the Conrad Weiser Scouts.

They’re headed to Elmira, N.Y, to participate in the Josh Palmer Fund Clarion Classic, a 24-team tournament for boys and girls which raises money for local cancer patients.

Josh Palmer was a football player diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease while a student at Mansfield Mansfield University. Weiser coach Rich Miller was coaching basketball there at the time.

Palmer recovered and started the tournament in 1999. Miller used the tournament as a recruiting aid.

“I went there every year to watch,” he said. “It was a chance to see teams from Rochester and other areas; they had some very, very talented teams there.”

When Miller became Scouts coach last season he reached out to Palmer, who runs the tournament, to see if there was a spot for them.

Weiser will play in the four-team Joel Stephens regional division. It opens Wednesday, Dec. 28 against Corning, N.Y. Ithaca and Seton Catholic are on the other half of the bracket. The winners will meet Dec. 30; the losers play Dec. 29.

The Scouts players, along with their families, will spend two nights in New York.

“It’ll be a good bonding experience for our guys,” Miller said. “I don’t know if its a greatest thing for us, (in regard) to the (district) playoffs [the out-of-state games don’t count in the power ratings] but it’ll be fun to do and (give them a chance to) be together three days; it’ll be an experience they will certainly remember.”

The Scouts are in a building phase. Their best players are sophomores, Donovan Gingrich and Brady McKee. They have only three seniors and just one among their top six scorers.

“This will be a team-bonding experience,” Miller said. “That might be the most important thing we can get out of this. Hopefully that’s something we carry into the second half of the season.”

The Scouts are 2-3 after nearly upsetting Berks Catholic Tuesday night. They led by as many as nine points before losing 63-57 to the top-rated team in District 3 Class 4A.

“I went into that game expecting to be in it in the fourth quarter, and we were,” said Miller. “We put ourselves in that position. We had four sophomores out there most of the game. We’re getting closer.”

Last week Weiser led Schuylkill Valley by 21 points but let the lead slip away. It’s going through the growing pains that come with a young lineup.

“We have a lot of work to do to get over the hump,” Miller said. “We’ll ge there.”

Red Knights’ holiday blues

Reading High has won its own holiday tournament only three times in the last 10 years.

Hard to believe, considering all the other tournaments the Red Knights have won in that span — two PIAA championships, four district titles and five Berks Conference titles.

Reading’s not shy about bringing in top competition. Three of the champs over the last decade have been from out of state: Dunbar (Md.) won it twice, Albany (N.Y.) once.

Last year the Red Knights were taken out by Devon Prep in the title game, 75-51. It looks like the Tide, with three starters back from its PIAA Class 3A championship team, will be their toughest obstacle again.

Reading opens its 48th annual tournament against Central Dauphin Tuesday in the second game of a double-header. Parkland (4-1) faces Devon Prep (5-1) at 6:00.

Devon Prep features Army recuit Jacen Holloway and second-team All-State pick Lucas Orchard, who has an offer from Monmouth. Orchard had 25 points and Holloway 15 in last year’s game. The Red Knights played without starters Daniel Alcantara and Joey Chapman.

Devon’s lone loss this season came to Thomas Jefferson of Brooklyn.

The tournament has been played ever year since 1974, with the exception of 2020 when it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Holiday greetings

Berks Conference Division I rivals Daniel Boone and Twin Valley could meet in the Solanco Holiday Tournament next week.

The Blazers and Raiders open on opposite ends of the bracket next Wednesday. If both win, or both lose, they will meet the next day.

They’ll meet in league play Jan. 10 at Birdsboro and Jan. 24 at Twin Valley.

Holiday guest list changed

Fleetwood’s Tiger Classic will include just three teams, meaning the schedule has been adjusted and the tournament will be spread over three days — Dec. 27-29 — instead of two.

Upper Perkiomen will face Fleetwood on the first night, Brandywine Heights plays Fleetwood Dec. 28 and

Upper Perk meets Brandywine Heights Dec. 29.

The Tigers beat the Bullets 49-47 to improve to 6-0 last season.

Karnish closing in

Fleetwood’s Jake Karnish is about one “average” game away from reaching 1,000 career points.

After scoring a season-low 22 points Tuesday in a 59-44 win at Schuylkill Valley he’s at 972 points. He’s averaging a Berks-leading 26.8 points.

The 6-3 senior wing has a pair of 30-point games during the Tigers’ 5-0 start.

Fleetwood’s boys program has produced only four 1,000-point scorers and none over the last 38 seasons.

Dave Angstadt’s record of 1,201 is well within range.

Among the many strong parts of Karnish’s game is getting to the foul line. He’s had 45 free throw attemps in five games; only Schuylkill Valley’s Mark Rajnath (64 attempts) has gotten there more often. Karnish is hitting 86.7 from foul line.

Fleetwood plays again Thursday at Daniel Boone.

The Big Five

Ruben Rodriguez scored 26 points Wednesday against Chester to reach 1,475 career points; he’s among the five highest scorers ever to play at Reading High.

The Red Knights have had four 1,500-point scorers: Stu Jackson (1,563), Dick Nyquist (1,576), Donyell Marshall (1,581) and Lonnie Walker IV (1,828).

Rodriguez, who played his freshman season at Muhlenberg, has scored 1,187 points with the Red Knights, which ranks 11th, just behind Trinity Burdine (1,281).

Rodriguez could become just the second to score over 1,600 with the Red Knights and, with an extended playoff run, could pass Walker’s record.

Overall, Rodriguez is on pace to become Berks’ seventh 2,000-point scorer.