It’s back-to-back titles for the Red Knights and a three-peat for Ruben
HERSHEY — Ruben Rodriguez remembers being nervous the first time he played a championship game at Giant Center. It barely showed. He had 15 points and seven rebounds and made a key three-point play in overtime to lift Muhlenberg to its first District 3 championship.
He was a 14-year-old freshman.
Two long years later he’s a virtual grizzled veteran. The big stage, the bright lights, they don’t bother him one iota. If anything, they lift him higher.
The Reading High junior opened Saturday’s District 3 Class 6A championship with a dunk and ended it with a trophy in his arms after a 68-43 thrashing of seventh-seeded Warwick at Giant Center.
In between Rodriguez was his usual All-State self, dropping 3-pointers, running the floor, making steals and leading the top-seeded Red Knights (25-3) to their record 23rd district title, and second straight.
“No situation is too big for Ruben,” said Reading coach Rick Perez, “he embraces them all.”
Rodriguez finished with a game-high 23 points, five steals, four assists, four rebounds – and his third district gold medal in three years. That’s the foundation of an incredible basketball legacy.
“Before, it would get to me a little bit,” Rodriguez said of playing in big arenas, such as Giant Center and Santander Arena, where the Berks Conference championship game is played, “but I knew I couldn’t be scared today if we were gonna win.
“I knew I had to come out and just play my game.”
Rodriguez’s game started with a breakaway dunk and was quickly followed by 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the court.
That set the tone for a game in which the Red Knights led from start to finish. They were up a dozen points at the half, 15 early in the third quarter, saw the Warriors fight back and cut it to five, then finished them off with a devastating 15-0 run that overlapped the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.
Rodriguez, of course, provided the highlight of that run. He stole the ball at midcourt in the final seconds of the first half, then tossed up a 3-pointer that banked off the glass at the buzzer and gave Reading a 50-36 lead.
Championship No. 23 was just a matter of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s at that point.
For good measure, the Red Knights opened the final quarter with a 16-2 run and pushed the lead to 28.
“You could definitely see them getting tired,” Rodriguez said. “I knew we had that in our advantage when I saw them starting to push the ball more. We were forcing them into fastbreaks that they’re not really used to. I knew they were playing our game.”
Joey Chapman, again wearing injured Daniel Alcantara’s No. 21, played brilliantly himself.
He was a catalyst on both ends of the floor and finished with a career-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, five rebounds and three assists.
“You can put him anywhere on the court and he’s effective,” said Perez, who inserted Chapman into the starting lineup when Alcantara was lost for the season with a broken hand. “Today he just found his way in the high post. He made some plays defensively. He finished at the short corner. Where wasn’t Joey today? He’s gonna do whatever he can do for us to win.”
Reading High will open PIAA Tournament play Wednesday at the Geigle against Downingtown West, the No. 12 finisher in the District 1 Tournament. They’ll take a seven-game state winning streak into that one.
Saturday’s win marked the first time in 45 years the Red Knights have won back-to-back titles. You’d have to go back to 1976-77 to find the last one. They also won back-to-back titles in 1972 and 1973. They haven’t won three in a row since 1955-56-57.
“Back-to-back, it means a lot,” said Reading junior Myles Grey. “You know, we worked very hard to get here. Our man Dan, he got hurt; we did this for him. We’re happy right now.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Warwick | 15 | 8 | 13 | 7 | 43 |
| Reading High | 17 | 18 | 15 | 18 | 68 |
| Warriors (20-6) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Landis | 3-9 | 3-5 | 3-6 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| Evans | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Sapp | 4-7 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| Horst | 3-7 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| Fink | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Johnson | 3-3 | 4-6 | 00 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Krall | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hoag | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Martin | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-38 | 7-11 | 4-17 | 7 | 17/20 | 43 |
| Red Knights (25-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| R. Rodriguez | 8-13 | 4-4 | 3-6 | 4 | 4 | 23 |
| Grey | 3-12 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
| Davis | 4-5 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 5 | 9 |
| Chapman | 9-12 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 5 | 19 |
| A.Rodriguez | 2-9 | 1-1 | 1-5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Walker | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| Wilson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osumanu | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28-55 | 7-9 | 5-16 | 12 | 28/30 | 68 |
Turnovers: Warwick 13, Reading High 10.
