Saints inch closer to the bar but still can’t overtake Delone Catholic

By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com Senior Correspondent

HERSHEY — The bar was set during the opening weekend when Berks Catholic made a 90-minute trip to York County. The Saints saw the obstacle that day. The team they needed to beat in order to capture District 3.

That reality didn’t change over the ensuing two months. Not after Delone Catholic won the first meeting by 13 points in December or when it traveled to Wolf Gymnasium and prevailed by 15 points in January.

All roads were headed to the same place. A rematch.

“That definitely was in the back of my mind,” senior Aaliyah Dabney said. “We have to get past them to win.”

Berks Catholic’s players never found a way. This was the closest they came.

Top-seeded Delone outlasted No. 3 Berks Catholic 33-27 in the Class 4A championship game at Giant Center Saturday.

If defensive grit were enough, the Saints could have found a path to gold. Their trademark man-to-man intensity, which helped them overcome Big Spring and Bermudian Springs to reach this point, made another appearance in the final.

Berks Catholic held Delone Catholic to 6-for-30 shooting from the floor over the final three quarters. That gave the Saints a chance to recover from a 14-3 deficit.

“The areas I thought we needed to play well to beat them we did,” BC coach Bob Birmingham said. “On the defensive end and beating their pressure. We just didn’t score. We had some open shots. We had two or three 3s that were in and out. We missed some layups that were key.”

There were moments when it looked like Berks Catholic had a chance to pull this off. They were flickering moments.

One came when Sydney Brown scored five of her team-high eight points in a one-minute stretch of the third quarter and the Saints were within 19-16. They didn’t get closer.

“It’s frustrating but it’s also amazing we even got to this point,” Dabney said. “It definitely was there for us, especially at the end when it got to five or six. A couple more 3s and we get ahead. They just didn’t fall. It didn’t go our way.”

Berks Catholic (21-6) was held to a season-low 27 points. The first possession was an indication of the tough sledding ahead. The Saints worked the ball for nearly 75 seconds before a shot bounced off the rim.

Making another shot or two, and there were open chances, could have applied more pressure to favored Delone (26-1).

“When you’re looking at film, it’s always like, ‘If I would have done this one little different thing better or right, maybe we would have come out with a win,’” senior Caroline Reedy said. “But what are you going to do afterwards? You just have to move on.”

Half of Berks Catholic’s losses have come against the same opponent. The Saints ended up staring at the same bar they knew they needed to clear on Dec. 11. Delone is the only PIAA team BC played and didn’t defeat.

“They know Delone is a good team,” Birmingham said. “I told them the first time we played Delone I thought they were the best 4A team in the state. We’re right there with them.”

The good news is there aren’t many Delone Catholics in the PIAA tournament. The Squirettes are among the favorites going forward.

That’s what’s left for Berks Catholic. The chance to put together a state run. It starts with a home game against District 2 third-place finisher Lake Lehman Wednesday.

“We have to look ahead to the games that are coming up,” Reedy said. “We have to shake this one off.”