Red Knights’ comeback falls painfully short
EASTON — Few teams would dare think they’d have chance at coming back after trailing by 25 points in the second half, but the Reading Red Knights refused to believe that Sunday.
They didn’t care what it said on the scoreboard.
“It would never go through our minds to give up,” said Red Knights junior Amier Burdine.
And they didn’t. They battled almost all the way back, twice cutting Archbishop Wood’s lead to two, the last time with 40 seconds left, before seeing the Vikings pull away to secure a 64-58 win in the second round of the PIAA Tournament at Easton Middle School.
“I knew that it was going to be a tough comeback,” said Reading junior Ruben Rodriguez, “but I knew we were capable of doing it. I’m just proud of how we finished it up.”
The District 3 champs were hammered in the first half, falling behind 18-5 and 34-12 as the Vikings (19-7) played with poise and executed their offense. It was 36-15 at the half, Wood having held Reading to its lowest first-half total of the season.
Both sides knew it wasn’t over.
“We (said): ‘They’re not gonna stop coming,’ ” said Archbishop Wood coach John Mosco, who knows the Reading program well, after facing it in last year’s state final. ” ‘They’re gonna keep coming for the (name on the front of the) shirt.’ And that’s what they did.”
The Red Knights, picking up the defensive heat with their fullcourt traps, put together a 16-0 run in the third quarter that got them within single digits for the first time since the early minutes.
The Vikings extended the lead back to 15 again with six minutes left before the Red Knights put together a 14-0 run, Ruben Rodriguez’s drive making it 49-47 with 3:29.
“I knew at some point they were gonna show up,” Reading coach Rick Perez said of his kids. “We weren’t gonna go out like that. They just know how to stand in the face of adversity. They know how to fight.”
Wood took advantage of the double bonus, using six free throws to pull ahead again at 57-50 with 1:16 left. Again Reading came back, a 3-pointer from Justin Walker and Joey Chapman’s drive making it 57-55 with 40 seconds left.
That’s as close as it got. The Red Knights were forced to foul and the Vikings refused to let them back in the game. They made 7-of-8 free throws in the final minute and 15-of-19 in the fourth quarter.
“I thought we were gonna complete it,” said Burdine of the comeback. “We were right there, right there. We just couldn’t get over that hump.”
The Red Knights dug an early hole that proved too great to overcome, and it ended their season one step shy of making the PIAA quarterfinals for the third straight year — something the program has never accomplished.
“They threw a punch at us,” Burdine said of the first half. “We weren’t expecting that. We had to regroup and throw our punch back. The game wasn’t over; it wasn’t. We just had to keep working. Unfortunately, we got cut short.”
Archbishop Wood lost at Reading, coincidentally by the same score, 64-58, on Jan. 22, but this was a different Vikings team. Much more balanced, more poised, and better able to contain the Red Knights. It made a difference, Mosco said, that Reading was without its No. 2 scorer, Daniel Alcantara, who was lost for the season with a broken wrist late last month.
“Without Daniel, it’s one less guy you have to really guard,” he said. “We benefitted from that.”
Mosco also felt his team was playing its best ball, especially in the first half.
“They looked like a new team,” Burdine said, “the way they ran their offense, the way they were in sync. Everything was executed well from them.”
Ruben Rodriguez scored a game-high 21 points to lead Reading, 11 of them coming in the fourth quarter. He got help from senior Justin Walker, who came off the bench to score 12 points, including a pair of big 3’s in the third-quarter to ignite the comeback.
The Vikings got 18 points from Justin Moore, the senior point guard headed to Drexel. He was good on 10-of-12 free throws and scored nine fourth-quarter points.
The Red Knights forced 21 turnovers but that wasn’t enough to overcome Wood’s 42-29 advantage on the boards. The Vikings have a long lineup, led by 6-7 center Carson Howard, who had 11 rebounds.
“That’s a really good program and they have really good players,” Rodriguez said, “so kudos to them. We’ll be back next year.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Reading High | 7 | 8 | 16 | 27 | 58 |
| Archbishop Wood | 18 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 64 |
| Red Knights (26-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| R Rodriguez | 8-21 | 3-4 | 2-5 | 3 | 5 | 21 |
| Grey | 1-7 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Davis | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| Chapman | 2-11 | 2-7 | 0-1 | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| A Rodriguez | 2-3 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Walker | 4-7 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| Totals | 22-59 | 8-16 | 6-14 | 12 | 23/29 | 58 |
| Archbishop Wood (19-7) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Moore | 4-8 | 10-12 | 0-1 | 3 | 7 | 18 |
| Laster | 1-5 | 8-8 | 0-0 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| Bethea | 4-10 | 1-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| Knouse | 2-7 | 0-1 | 1-6 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Howard | 0-1 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 11 | 4 |
| Allen | 5-8 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 11 |
| Reed | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Dixon | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mosco | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 18-42 | 26-32 | 2-10 | 10 | 39/42 | 64 |
Turnovers: Reading High 11, Archbishop Wood 21.