Red Knights ‘muck it up,’ stay alive in PIAA Tournament with overtime victory
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
ALTOONA — Malik Osumanu saw Erie McDowell scoring machine Tyler Grove open the game with a 3-pointer, then add two more baskets later in the opening quarter to help his team open an early lead.
Osumanu, Reading High’s rim protector, was unfazed. He’s a senior and has been on the floor for dozens of big games. He had watched hours and hours of video of McDowell’s 1,000-point scorer, saw the spots he liked to shoot from and knew he could take them away.
“I knew with my length and just giving him space he was not going to get downhill,” Osumanu said confidently, “and I knew most of his teammates weren’t looking to score, so he was (eventually) going to (start) forcing bad shots.”
Osumanu and the Red Knights’ other lengthy interior defenders, Yadiel Cruz and Xavier Beatty, eventually wore down the 6-7 Grove and that showed up in overtime when the Trojans went dry and the Red Knights pulled away for a 54-47 victory in a PIAA Class 6A second-round win at Altoona.
Grove finished with a team-high 17 points but that was more than five points under his average and it came at the cost of 19 shots. After making his first three shots he went 3-for-15 from the field. He missed his final six shots in overtime, including four in the final minute.
“We did a great job of playing the game plan at the end of the game,” said Reading coach Francis Camara. “We just mucked it up. (Grove) couldn’t get touches where he wanted to get them, on his spot.”
Reading heads to the state quarterfinals for the third time in four years after winning for the 13th time in its last 14 state playoff games. It will meet Coatesville, a 52-37 winner Wednesday over District 3 champ Cumberland Valley.
The Red Knights and Red Raiders will play Saturday, site and time to be determined. Reading lost at Coatesville 69-51 two months ago. The Red Knights lost to Cumberland Valley 66-47 in a district semifinal.
Grove scored the first basket of overtime before the Red Knights (21-10) used their fullcourt trap to force a pair of turnovers and seize momentum.
Nick Chapman’s layup, off an outlet pass from Weshly Rosario, gave Reading the lead for good at 49-47 with 2:21 left in overtime. The Trojans (21-6) went scoreless over the final 3:20 of OT, missing their final nine shots.
The 45 points in regulation were the fewest the District 10 champs scored this season.
Reading’s defensive effort was all the more impressive, considering the foul situation. Weshly Rosario picked up his fourth personal late in the third quarter. Osumanu picked his fourth two minutes into the fourth. Chapman picked up his fourth a minute later. Each was still on the floor at the end of the game.
McDowell saw sixth man Stephon Porter foul out in the final seconds of regulation and starters Andrew Mitchell and Quentin Orlando go in overtime.
The Red Knights seemed the fresher, better-conditioned team in overtime, and it showed up when they turned up the fullcourt heat.
“It wasn’t planned,” Camara of waiting so late to unleash the fullcourt trap. “We got something good out of it, so we went back to it and just finished strong with it. We gave them more blurry vision, had them second-guessing, and that’s what we wanted.”
Cruz had the Trojans second-guessing themselves, too. They tried a variety of defenses on him, even a box-and-one for a brief period, but they couldn’t slow him down. He finished with a game-high 21 points and hit a key shot late in regulation with a tough up-and-under shot on Grove that tied it at 45-45 with 1:35 left. Neither team scored again in regulation.
“(Cruz) is an incredible player,” McDowell coach Kevin O’Connor said of the Berks scoring leader. “He can finish around the rim. For us to give up (so many) second chances, that hurt us late.”
Rosario, who made a huge 3-pointer late in regulation, hit four free throws in overtime as the Red Knights steadily pulled away. Rosario finished with 17 points.
The Red Knights trailed throughout much of the first half, and by as many as six at one point, but finished the second period with a flourish to take a 25-21 lead into halftime.
Rosario was the triggerman for two huge plays in the final minute-plus of the opening half. First he grabbed a defensive rebound and fired a long outlet pass to Cruz, who made the bucket, then completed the three-point play after being fouled.
Rosario then beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer after the Red Knights forced a turnover deep on the McDowell end with less than two seconds left.
Reading led by as many as eight points in the third quarter before Grove hit a short jumper and three free throws to cut their deficit to 35-33 heading into the final quarter.
The Red Knights had a chance to win it at the end of regulation after forcing a turnover with 8.3 seconds left but Rosario’s 3-pointer was off the mark.
“We had an opportunity to finish the game,” Camara said. “We could’ve gotten a better shot there. We should’ve attacked the basket. We didn’t get the shot we wanted but we turned around and responded in overtime.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | Final | |
| McDowell | 13 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 47 |
| Reading High | 11 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 54 |
| Trojans (21-6) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Orlando | 3-5 | 7-8 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 13 |
| Geib | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
| Mitchell | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Kramer | 4-9 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Grove | 6-19 | 4-6 | 1-6 | 2 | 10 | 17 |
| Porter | 0-2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Finazzo | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marsh | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Totals | 16-45 | 12-16 | 3-16 | 5 | 31/34 | 47 |
| Red Knights (21-10) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Cruz | 6-15 | 10-12 | 0-3 | 0 | 9 | 21 |
| Camara | 3-8 | 3-5 | 1-3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Chapman | 1-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Rosario | 5-7 | 5-9 | 2-3 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Osumanu | 0-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Burgess | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Sosa | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Beatty | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-47 | 20-30 | 3-12 | 7 | 30/34 | 54 |
Turnovers: McDowell 12, Reading 11. Team rebounds: McDowell 3, Reading 4.
