Ruben Rodriguez ends season with yet another scoring milestone
Ruben Rodriguez reached yet another basketball scoring milestone Sunday in Reading High’s final game of the season.
The junior guard scored 21 points to top 1,000 with the Red Knights, becoming the 17th player to do that with the program. He stands at 1,003.
Rodriguez, who scored 288 points as a freshman season at Muhlenberg in 2019-20, went over 1,000 career points earlier this season. Overall, he has 1,291 points.
| Reading’s top averages | ||
| Donyell Marshall | 1990-91 | 24.8 |
| Bill Jankans | 1964-65 | 23.7 |
| Stu Jackson | 1971-72 | 22.6 |
| Stu Jackson | 1972-73 | 22.2 |
| Wesley Butler | 2018-19 | 21.2 |
| Brian D’Amico | 1985-86 | 20.5 |
| Donyell Marshall | 1989-90 | 20.2 |
| Ruben Rodriguez | 2021-22 | 19.8 |
| Bill Jankans | 1965-66 | 19.8 |
Rodriguez is on pace to top 1,800 career points and has chance to finish among Berks County’s all-time Top 10 scorers.
He has a chance to surpass Lonnie Walker IV’s total of 1,828 points, though it will be up to the school to recognize that as program record.
NCAA statistical guidelines leave that distinction up to the individual institution, and most colleges or universities would not recognize it as a program record.
The Berks Player of the Year had several other noteworthy accomplishments this season.
He led Berks in scoring at 19.8 points per game. He’s just the fifth Reading player to lead Berks in scoring average over the past 50 years. The others: Stu Jackson (23.6, 1972-73); David Lawson (19.0, 2006-07); Walker IV (18.4, 2016-17) and Wesley Butler (21.2, 2018-19).
His scoring average is tied for eighth-highest in program history. Donyell Marshell set the record at 24.8 in 1990-91; Bill Jankans averaged 23.7 in 1964-65 and Jackson 22.6 in 1971-72.
| Career scoring leaders | ||
| Lonnie Walker IV | 2017 | 1,828 |
| Donyell Marshall | 1991 | 1,581 |
| Dick Nyquist | 1919 | 1,576 |
| Stu Jackson | 1973 | 1,563 |
| Jordan Burdine | 2008 | 1,435 |
| Bill Jankans | 1966 | 1,423 |
| Jermaine Jackson | 2008 | 1,400 |
| Brian D’Amico | 1986 | 1,359 |
| Wesley Butler | 2019 | 1,315 |
| Trenity Burdine | 2010 | 1,281 |
Rodriguez’s 593 points rank 10th most in a season by a Reading player. Marshall set the record with 794, in 1990-91.
His 593 points this season are fourth-most by a Reading High junior. Only Dick Nyquist (677, 1917-18), Jackson (655, 1971-72) and Marshall (626, 1989-90) have had more.
His 410 points as a sophomore are third-most in program history, behind Marcus Dawkins (461, 2008-09) and Walker (459).
Rodriguez set the program record with 50 points in a game in a 111-43 win Jan. 19 over Daniel Boone. Only three other Reading players have topped 40 in a game: Buck Friedman (48, in 1918-19), Marshall (43, in 1990-91) and Brian D’Amico (42, 1985-86).
Rodriguez also had a pair of 35-point games, against Berks Catholic and Harrisburg. He is the only Reading player to score 35 or more points three times in the same season, and only the second to do it in a career. Walker did it three times, once as a junior, twice as a senior.
Rodriguez, along with Daniel Alcantara, is one of four sets of Reading 1,000-point teammates. The others: Walker and Tyrone Nesby IV, in 2017; Walker and Khary Mauras, in 2016; and Jordan Burdine and Jermain Jackson, in 2008.