Red Knights: Everything, everywhere all at once in second-round win over Royals
COATESVILLE – Ruben Rodriguez made note of more than just Upper Darby’s X’s and O’s when watching video earlier this week.
“We could see they’re a team that gets frustrated really easy,” said the Reading High senior, “so we wanted to use that to our advantage. We kept playing hard, let the crowd get to ’em. You could see more and more they just started breaking up.”
The District 3 champion Red Knights (29-1) pressured the Royals (19-10) up and down the court, scrapped for every loose ball, battled for every rebound and contested every shot. Eventually they wore them down, pulling away for an 83-58 victory in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal at Coatesville.
You can break down Reading’s 20th straight win by looking at the box score or listening to the coaches talk about X’s and O’s.
Not necessary.
There’s one simple reason the Red Knights won: They played harder.
They fought harder on the boards, winning the battle 38-26 while allowing just three offensive rebounds. They hit the floor more often and tied up the Royals several times. And they harassed them with their lethal fullcourt trap, forcing a whopping 26 turnovers.
Like that Oscar-winning movie, they were everything, everywhere all at once.
“We were working extremely hard,” said Reading coach Rick Perez, something he can say after just about every game.
No one outworks the Red Knights – offseason, inseason or for that fierce 32 minutes once the ball goes up.
That’s why they find themselves in the Elite Eight for the third time in seven years. They move on to face District 7 runner-up New Castle, a 65-56 winner Wednesday over Downingtown West.
They’ll meet Saturday, site and time to be announced, likely by Thursday afternoon.
The Royals, the sixth-place finisher out of District 1, made the mistake early of trying to run with the Red Knights – they even tried to press them in the early minutes. Never a good idea. It led to one of Reading’s highest scoring totals of the season and to another one-sided state playoff win. Reading beat Haverford by 31 points in the opening round.
“We were just moving the ball, giving up our shot for the next guy to take a better shot,” said Rodriguez. “Everybody was hitting their shots at the end.”
Rodriguez led the way with 22 points, one of five players to reach double-digits. Chief among them was Yadiel Cruz, who came off the bench to score 17 points and grab a game-high 11 rebounds.
Aris Rodriguez threw down a couple slams and scored 15 points, Myles Grey had 14 points and a game-high six assists and Malik Osumanu scored a career-high 10.
All of those points came without benefit of a single 3-pointer: The Red Knights were 0-for-7 from 3-point range. Grey, who couldn’t seem to miss the last time out, when he knocked down eight straight 3’s on the way to 30 points, was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.
Didn’t matter. They got the rack at will and when they missed they usually got a second – or third – chance: They had 13 offensive rebounds, six of them courtesy of Cruz.
“Once you get into the paint, you can find any shot you want (against them) cutting off the baselines,” said Perez of the Royals. “We found those opportunities.”
One thing the Knights couldn’t do was stop Nadir Myers, a 1,000-point scorer who dropped five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 28 points. He kept the Royals within striking distance; they were within 58-50 with 6 ½ minutes to go before the Red Knights delivered their finishing blitz, scoring 23 points over the final six minutes.
While Myers went off, Reading effectively contained Upper Darby’s big, 6-4 Niymire Brown, who fouled out with 12 minutes to go and just four points and six rebounds on his stat line.
The Red Knights don’t have a true, full-time center but forward Amier Burdine banged on him a little and the Red Knights sent bodies at him in waves. He got off just three shots.
“That young man can play,” Perez said. “He had 27 rebounds two games ago, so we knew that we really had to attack him. We had to put some pressure on him, and we were successful.”
“(When he fouled out) it forced (Myers) to really do it all,” Ruben Rodriguez said, “(and) no one (guy) can do it all against us.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Upper Darby | 14 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 58 |
| Reading High | 20 | 16 | 20 | 27 | 83 |
| Royals (19-10) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Slaughter | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mulbach | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Myers | 9-17 | 5-8 | 5-8 | 1 | 2 | 28 |
| Joyner | 8-20 | 2-3 | 1-4 | 0 | 5 | 19 |
| N. Brown | 1-3 | 2-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Alston | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Hodges | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jackson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bamisaye | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Davis | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A Brown | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 21-46 | 9-13 | 7-17 | 3 | 18-26 | 58 |
| Red Knights (29-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| R. Rodriguez | 9-18 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 3 | 4 | 22 |
| Grey | 5-14 | 4-8 | 0-4 | 6 | 4 | 14 |
| A Rodriguez | 4-10 | 7-11 | 0-3 | 1 | 6 | 15 |
| Osumanu | 4-5 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Cruz | 6-8 | 5-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 11 | 17 |
| Chapman | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ortega | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Samuel | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Sosa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 30-60 | 23-34 | 0-7 | 15 | 36-38 | 83 |
Turnovers: Upper Darby 26, Reading High 13.
