Red Knights: ‘When we need to do it, it’s gonna get done.’
For the great teams, the ones with big ambitions — state title ambitions — the Berks Conference Tournament is just a warm-up race. A prelim.
When you’re Reading High with Lonnie Walker IV, Berks Catholic with Donovon Jack or Wilson with Stevie Mitchell you’re expected to win it. And win it big.
They all did.
In Walker’s senior season the Red Knights raced through the Berks playoffs, winning by 55, 19 and finally 22 points, over Berks Catholic. Its average margin of victory in the Berks playoffs was 32.0, highest ever. That team went on to win 30 games and the PIAA championship.
A year earlier Walker, with Khary Mauras and Damon Stern as running mates, helped the Red Knights become just the second team in the era of the expanded (three-round) Berks playoffs to win each of its three games by 20 or more points (Berks Catholic, in 2012, was the first).
Their winning margin, 31.0, is second-highest ever. That run was the precursor to a district championship, 28 wins and a spot in the PIAA semifinals.
Reading’s fabled 1982-83 squad — Rodney Hodge, Richie Williams, Pat Tulley, Charlie Chisholm and Don Juan Cooper — set a county record with 32 wins, won a district title and reached the state semifinals. They won their two Berks playoff games by an average of 28.5 points.
They’re one of just six teams to enjoy a better playoff run then the current Red Knights, who wrapped up the program’s 24th county title with a 51-35 victory over Berks Catholic Friday night; they won their games this week by 41, 16 and 16.
The other teams: Wilson in 2020, Mitchell’s junior season when the Bulldogs went 28-1 and were stopped only by COVID-19; Berks Catholic in 2012, with Jack, Marquis Marshall, Chris Warren and Mike Miller; and Reading’s 2002 squad, led by Jaren Burdine and Ryan Hightower.
This Reading team is in the conversation with each of those squads. It’s built with most of the key parts from last year’s PIAA championship team: All-State picks Ruben Rodriguez and Daniel Alcantara, Joey Chapman, Myles Grey, Xavier Davis and Amier Burdine.
There have been times — a lot of times — when they’ve looked better than the team that went 26-2 and took out Archbishop Wood in the state title game a season ago. They did in their season opener against Imhotep Charter, and a week later against La Salle College.
They did against Vertical Academy in late January and against Archbishop Wood one night later. This team, obviously, shows up on the biggest stages.
They did again Friday, running out to leads of 22-9, 30-12 and 35-14 against a championship-caliber Berks Catholic team.
No one runs the floor or finishes better than Rodriguez, and he had plenty of chances because of the way he and his teammates were playing defense and crashing the boards. It looked like a dunk contest at times, with Alcantara, Rodriguez and Aris each throwing them down.
Reading’s stifling defense set up those highlight-reel plays. The Red Knights can be relentless on that end at times. They were able to both lock down on Josiah Jordan, the Saints’ whirling dervish of a point guard, and the wing shooters he often feeds to. No one else has been able to pull that off.
The Red Knights’ nightly defensive goal is to hold its opponent to a sub-10: That’s nine or fewer points in a quarter. They did it three times against BC.
“I feel like nobody can beat us when we’re stopping teams like that,” Rodriguez said.
“They’re a tough team to defend,” Reading coach Rick Perez said of Berks Catholic. “We just did a great job, staying in front of them, getting out on shooters and rebounding the basketball, leaving them to one shot and done.”
The Saints haven’t faced a team that face-guards perimeter shooters the way the Red Knights do. They likely won’t, even if they play deep into March, which is possible.
“There’s not a team that has better speed and strength,” BC coach Snip Esterly said of the Red Knights. “I told (our) guys, we’re not gonna face anybody like that (in the playoffs). You’re gonna face good teams, but not like that.”
And yet the Saints found a way to sneak back into the game. They outscored Reading 16-1 over a five-minute stretch and were within six points after Aiden Sands’ basket on the opening possession of the fourth quarter.
Good as the Red Knights are, they have lapses. Take their foot off the gas. Don’t always put teams away. Is that a flaw that could potentially curtail what could be another long March? Or are they so good they know they can afford to coast.
Perez has been pushing them all season. He says they act privileged at times. He wants them to regain the hunger they had last year when they found the will to stop the legendary Mitchell once and for all after two stinging losses to Wilson, the second in the Berks title game.
“We know what it takes to get to where we want (to go),” Chapman assured after Friday’s win.
Perez seems confident they’ll get there.
“Keeping that attention to detail is something over the next six weeks that they’re gonna have to improve upon,” he said. “They’re gonna have their moments (when they lapse) but I know when push comes to shove they’re gonna be there. So when we need to do it, it’s gonna get done.”
