It didn’t take long for new Weiser coach Mike Dooley to find his way to championship game

Two months ago, when he was hired to coach Conrad Weiser’s basketball team, Mike Dooley did not know much about the Ron Krick Memorial Summer League.

He had no idea where the West Reading Playground courts were located.

Thursday he’ll coach in the league championship game.

“To be in the finals, it means a lot,” said rising Conrad Weiser junior Brady McKee, who hit three big free throws in overtime Wednesday as his Lamm & Witman Funeral Home team beat Apex Advertising 41-34 in a semifinal.

Lamm & Witman will face two-time defending champ Berks Packing, a 26-22 winner over Dulin’s Tire & Service, Thursday at 5:25. The league all-star game follows at 6:20.

Seeing Berks Packing, comprised of players from Berks Catholic, playing for another title is hardly a surprise: The Saints have Josh and Kingston McKoy, two of the best players in the Berks Conference and key components on their District 3 Class 4A championship team of last season.

To see Conrad Weiser in the final pairing?

That’s downright shocking.

The Scouts won just two of 10 games during the summer league regular season. They’ve won three playoff games in a row this week.

“We’re super-young, but we’ve got a ton of guys who are just competitors and we’ve put together a really good summer (practicing) in open gym,” said the 29-year-old Dooley. “Our kids have bought in. When you believe, that’s 90 percent of it.”

Weiser went just 7-15 last season and missed the playoffs for the second straight year.

Dooley talked about changing the culture when he was hired in May and he’s seemingly done it overnight. His guys played hard and played together in rallying from a six-point deficit against a more experienced, taller Warwick team Wednesday.

They hit the boards hard, shared the basketball and hustled on defense – something every coach wants but few can elicit.

Weiser didn’t take the lead until the final seconds of the third quarter when rising junior Donovan Gingrich put back a rebound for a 25-24 lead.

The Scouts took the lead for good early in OT when rising junior James Arnold found Gingrich on a backdoor cut. Gingrich, who finished with a game-high 23 points – 19 after halftime – hit 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the final minute as Lamm & Witman pulled away.

Josh Miller was the only rising senior to see the court yet the Scouts played with poise and like veterans down the stretch.

Dooley chuckled when told his team came up with “clutch” plays in the closing minutes.

“That’s not a word I thought would be associated with our team,” he said. “We’re so young. Finishing games the right way . . . we just didn’t know how (to do that) earlier in the summer.

“That win against Palmyra just changed our whole perception on how to finish games. Since then, we’ve done it.”

Dooley saw things come together for the at a team camp last weekend at Alvernia University, where Weiser won three times.

“The progress was there, it just wasn’t resulting in wins,” Dooley said. “I understand that, but it’s tough for the kids: They see win or loss and not so much (the) progress (we’re making). At the Alvernia team camp we were able to reset the culture and reset the energy.”

Dooley certainly brings the energy. He’s as active and involved in a summer league game as anyone you’ll ever see.

He’s part of the Rick Perez coaching tree. He learned much of what he implements from Jeff Sparrow, a former Reading High assistant with Perez. The guys at Weiser have taken to that style quickly.

Dooley is constantly shouting “Show love!” to his players. He preaches communication and togetherness and wants to see his team come together as a family, much as Reading High has during its recent run of state championships.

“(He wants us to) show love to everyone on the court after every single dead ball,” said McKee.

“I want us to high-five and get over stuff, (move on to the) next play,” Dooley said. “Rick Perez knows that better than anybody, to get over stuff.  We’re building a culture of dudes that like each other, and dudes that like their coaches and want to play hard.”

McKee and some of his teammates trained with Dooley and Sparrow years ago at Point Blank Period. When McKee heard he would be playing for Dooley at Weiser he was excited.

“Coach Dooley, he brings all the energy,” said McKee. “He gets all of our guys fired up. Defense is all about energy, and he brings that. It helps us get pumped up, and (makes you) want to get a stop. I’ve never had a coach like him my entire life.”

The second semifinal was a defensive battle, as you might imagine. That’s the way it is when Berks Catholic and Exeter get on the court.

The Eagles won two of three meetings and the Berks II title last season, and there’s little love lost between the two rivals even with a large turnover in cast.

The Saints didn’t allow a field goal in the first quarter, were up by six at halftime and led the rest of the way. Kingston McKoy clinched it with a pair of free throws with 31 seconds left to make it 25-20; he finished with nine points.

Josh McKoy scored a game-high 10. Reece Garvin knocked down a pair of 3’s and led Exeter with eight points.

Berks Packing will be favored in the championship game; the guys at Lamm & Witman realize as much. Just getting to the title game is a huge win for the Weiser program.

“This is big for us,” said Dooley, “because it’s the last time I’m gonna have them (until practice starts in November). Donovan leaves for football, Kaden (Leonard) leaves for football; Brady, Alex (Malone), Gavin (Rupp) – a couple more – leave for soccer.

“We’ve put a lot of sweat in, a lot of time in the summer – everybody does – but for us to end it on a high note with a little run (like this) is really good.”