It’s another Berks championship for the Red Knights
The highest-scoring team in the Berks Conference showed it can play a little defense, too.
Reading High, held to its lowest scoring total of the season, still dominated Berks Catholic in a 51-35 championship game Friday before 3,400 at Santander Arena.
The second-seeded Saints (20-4) had the pace to their liking for much of the second half, when they trimmed a 21-point deficit to 36-30 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
The Red Knights (22-3) used a dominant run of their own to pull away and secure their league-record 24th Berks Conference title. They outscored the Saints 15-3 over a six-minute stretch of the final quarter.
The 36 points was also a season-low for the Saints; they scored just three points in the second quarter and 12 in the first half.
Reading’s Ruben Rodriguez led the assault, scoring nine of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter. He also had eight rebounds and three assists in another all-around performance.
Aidan Koch scored 13 points and Josiah Jordan had 12 for the Saints, who head to the District 3 Class 4A Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
The Red Knights will be the top seed and favored to repeat when the District 3 Class 6A Tournament opens Tuesday.
The Red Knights appeared to be in complete control, leading 35-14 after back-to-back baskets by Ruben Rodriguez three minutes into the third quarter. The Saints managed to get back in the game, slowing the pace and competing better on the boards.
Josiah Jordan scored eight points during a 14-1 run that saw Berks Catholic pull within 36-28 at the end of the third quarter.
The Red Knights swarming defense gave the Saints few open looks in the first half. They pressure perimeter shooters and saw a Berks Catholic team that thrives from the 3-point go 1-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first half.
The Red Knights not only control the glass in the opening half, with a 23-11 advantage, but held the Saints to one-and-done possessions. Berks Catholic didn’t have an offense reboud in the first half. Combine that with their 1-for-9 shooting in the second quarter and it was no suprise to see them trailing 28-12 at intermission.
The Red Knights’ high-powered offense was slowed a bit, too. They came in averaging a league-best 73.3 points and had scored 80 or more seven times. They put up 87 the last time they played Berks Catholic, a significant figure.
It’s the most points scored against Berks Catholic in its 11-year history, and the most ever scored against an Esterly team in the regular season.
You’d have to go back 30 years, to an 87-66 loss to Scotland in the PIAA semifinals, to find another team put up that many against one of his team.
Reading’s scoring output says a lot, considering Esterly’s penchant for defense and his team’s success at executing on that end of the floor. Most of his better teams allow an average of 40 or fewer points.
When they played three weeks ago the Saints had the lead early in the third quarter and stayed close into the fourth before Rodriguez and the Red Knights pulled away.
They were tied as late as 2 1/2 minutes into the third quarter when Jordan hit a 3-pointer to make it 46-46. The Saints stayed close by hitting 12-of-26 3’s; in the first meeting they made just 6-of-19, and several of those came in the fourth quarter with the game well out of hand.
Rodriguez, a first-team All-State pick as a sophomore, finished with a game-high 35 points, 25 in the second half. He was good on 16-of-25 shots from the floor.
