Red Knights are playoff-ready after pulling out state tournament win at Chester
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The thing his Reading High basketball team does best, first-year coach Francis Camara will tell you, is handle adversity.
“These guys are fighters,” he says proudly.
After perhaps their most puzzling loss of the season, to eighth-seeded Red Lion in a District 3 third-place game at the Geigle, the Red Knights carried their first two-game losing streak of the season into the PIAA Tournament.
In order to avoid ending the season with three straight losses they needed to win Saturday at Chester – something Reading had never done before in the postseason.
The Red Knights pulled that off in incredible fashion, holding off a late Clippers rally and getting a blocked shot in the final second from reserve center Xavier Beatty for a 65-63 win.
“Our boys have done a good job bouncing back after adversity,” Camara said.
Now a team with just one starter returning from the most successful season in program history tries to extend its season – and its impressive PIAA resume.
The Red Knights (20-10) head to Altoona Wednesday at 6 to face 17-time District 10 champ Erie McDowell in the second round of the state tournament. The Trojans (21-5) advanced with a 61-45 victory over District 7 runner-up Baldwin on Saturday.
McDowell beat Erie 52-47 for the District 10 title. Earlier in the season the Trojans lost to Erie 74-67. Their other losses have come to Louisville, Erie Cathedral Prep (twice) and State College. They also avenged the State College defeat, beating the Little Lions by 20 points last month.
The Red Knights’ biggest challenge against McDowell will be 6-6 senior Tyler Grove, a 1,000-point scorer averaging a team-best 22.8 points. He’s an inside/outside threat who has 38 3-pointers, second on the team.
“(Grove) is their guy,” Camara said. “He can really play. He’s an athletic guy. He’s super-versatile. He’s going to pose a really, really good challenge for us defensively because of his versatility and the way he’s so fluid at 6-6.”
The defensive assignment on Grove will likely fall to 6-5 senior Malik Osumanu, the lone returning starting from Reading’s PIAA championship team. He’s a rim protector and the key to the Red Knights’ interior defense. He doesn’t score much, though he had 17 points – one shy of his career high – against Chester.
McDowell, which averages better than 63 points per game, has other capable scorers around Grove. Junior guard Kamden Kramer has 54 3’s and averages 13.8 points. Freshman Landon Marsh has 23 3’s off the bench; 6-3 wing Talen Geib has 20 3’s.
“When you have a big like (Grove) who’s very good in the post, it’s very difficult to guard when you have (shooters) all around him,” Camara said.
The Red Knights will counter with similar offensive weapons. Senior Yadiel Cruz, the Berks coaches’ pick as Player of the Year, averages 22.1 points and leads the team with 48 3-pointers. All-Berks guard Nick Chapman, a defensive specialist, averaged 10.5 points. Freshman Jeremiah Camara averages 8.8. Daquann Burgess, the team’s most dangerous shooter, has 40 3’s; he came off the bench Saturday to hit a couple of key 3’s.
The win at Chester improved Reading’s PIAA Tournament record to 13-1 over the past five years; the only loss during that stretch came against Archbishop Wood in a wild 64-58 quarterfinal loss two years ago.
“The boys understood the significance of getting a win at Chester and how hard that is to do,” Camara said. “They were ecstatic winning a state game and blessed to play another 32 minutes.”
