It’s a grand night for Saints’ Josiah Jordan
When Josiah Jordan came to Berks Catholic as a ninth-grader he wasn’t thinking about playing basketball. His focus was completely on football.
There are dozens of opposing guards out there with broken ankles who wish Jordan had stuck to that plan and stayed off the court.
He’s been a menace to anyone trying to defend him the last four seasons. He’s everywhere at once on the court, in your face, taking the ball away from you in the open court, then racing back the other way to lay it in.
If you’re trying to defend him one-on-one you better not blink or you’ll miss the show.
That’s how it was midway through the third quarter Monday at Wolf Gymnasium, where Jordan was torturing Conrad Weiser in his mad dash to 1,000 career points.
The move that put him over the magical mark was typical JayJay: Just above the foul line, crossover dribble, spin move to his left to shake his defender, step toward the basket, quick cut right, switch the ball to his right hand, split two defenders, then up with a soft release, the ball trickling through the net and setting off an on-court celebration.
“That’s me,” Jordan said of the move, “(that’s) my jam. Always.”
Jordan never imagined he’d one day join the short list of 1,000-point scorers at Berks Catholic. He envisioned being a star on the football field, which he was: An All-State cornerback who was a threat to score six points any time he touched the ball, which was often.
His dad, Shelton, coached basketball in the Reading High program; that’s the team Josiah grew up watching. He was raised on Lonnie Walker IV and the Red Knights, a good starting point for any young baller.
It was somewhat by accident, he says, that he became part of the Saints basketball program. The summer before his ninth-grade year at BC he went to one of the Saints’ summer league games just to watch. One of their guards got hurt. Snip Esterly needed backcourt help. He enlisted Jordan’s help.
The rest, as they say, is history. He’s been a two-sport star — and last spring, when he added track and field to the resume, a three-sport star — ever since.
“Everything took off,” he says.
He was in the Saints’ starting lineup for every game of his freshman season. In his first varsity game he led the team in scoring; he finished second on the team for the season. He was raw, yes, with loads to learn, but the potential oozed out. His physical gifts were just too good for him not to rise to the top.
He led the way in scoring as a sophomore but the team struggled, finishing 6-11. Last season, with most of the key parts back, they turned it around in a big way, winning 23 games and a District 3 Class 4A championship. Jordan led the way with a game-high 17 points in the title game at Giant Center.
This year it’s been more of the same. Jordan is leading the team in scoring for the third straight season and the Saints have yet to lose. They breezed past Conrad Weiser 62-36 Monday to push their record to 12-0.
“I’m on Cloud Nine, honestly,” Jordan said of the perfect start.
He had quite the challenge Monday, needing 20 points to hit 1,000. That’s no easy chore. Ninety percent of all high school players in the country will never score 20 points in a single game. Jordan needed to do it with all eyes on him and knowing the Saints’ next game would be on the road, at Muhlenberg. He wanted to do it at home, of course, adding a little more pressure.
“Before the game he said he was nervous,” said teammate and close friend Jaxon Geddie, “(because) everyone was looking at him (expecting him to do it). I’ve never seen him nervous before a game, so that was something different.”
“It was overwhelming,” Jordan admitted later, “with people saying (at school) they’re going to come to the game, and (with all the well wishes on) social media, but I kind of just tuned everything out and played my game.”
Jordan’s first basket came two seconds into the game, off the tap, Geddio finding him for a layup. He scored another layup a couple minutes later, then scored on a drive, then, with the first-quarter clock winding down, he buried a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
Nine points in the first quarter. That certainly took the edge off.
He showed off that explosive first step for another basket a few seconds into the second quarter. Later he picked someone’s pocket at midcourt and went in for a layup, like he’s done a hundred times before.
Late in the opening half he went to the foul line, hostile territory for him throughout his years at BC. This night it was a safe house: He swished four straight, the net barely budging, to bring his career total to 997.
Jordan had the ball in his hands in the final seconds of the half. Everyone in the building knew what was gonna happen next. He made a move to penetrate the 3-point arc, then eased back behind it. Two straight buzzer-beating 3’s? Is this for real?
“I was really going for it,” said Jordan, who was doing the math throughout. “I usually can’t count my points in my head during a game but this game I was locked in. I knew. I wish that 3 would’ve fallen. That would’ve been amazing for me.”
It didn’t fall. His 1,000th had to wait a while, but it came soon enough. When it did his teammates stormed the court and buried him in a dog pile.
Then it was back to work. On the Saints next possession he’s flipped a pass behind his back to set up Ryan Koch with a layup. That’s Jay-Jay in a nutshell.
“I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said. “A lot of pressure’s been put on me, from football, to basketball, to track. It’s kind of expected at this point.”
The 20 points might’ve looked big to most, but not to Jordan; he’s visited that number often.
“Twenty is right up my alley,” he said. “I think about it as 10 layups — that’s all it is.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Conrad Weiser | 7 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 36 |
| Berks Catholic | 15 | 22 | 17 | 8 | 62 |
| Scouts (3-8) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Gingrich | 3-11 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| McKee | 6-10 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 0 | 4 | 14 |
| Malone | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| E. Miller | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Plummer | 5-5 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1 | 6 | 12 |
| B. Snyder | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Diana | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| A. Snyder | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Civiello | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Arnold | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-37 | 0-0 | 4-16 | 3 | 25-25 | 36 |
| Saints (12-0) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Geddio | 3-5 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Jordan | 8-18 | 4-4 | 1-2 | 2 | 5 | 21 |
| Koch | 7-12 | 2-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
| Miller | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| J. McKoy | 1-7 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| K. McKoy | 3-7 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Lawlor | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Diaz | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Dominguez | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Gaffney | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Komoro | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Altimer | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 26-62 | 6-6 | 4-15 | 10 | 28-28 | 62 |
Turnovers: Conrad Weiser 21, Berks Catholic 4.
