Saints left to wonder what could’ve been after season-ending loss to Goretti
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Mike Drago — MikeDragoSports.com Managing Editor
COATESVILLE — Berks Catholic reached the second round of the state tournament this season, something only a small percentage of high school basketball teams manage.
The Saints won 23 games, something even fewer teams achieve.
Oh, to think what they might have done had Player of the Year candidate Kingston McKoy not missed more than half of their games.
“There was a lot we could’ve accomplished,” said his brother Josh after the Saints played their final ball of the season Tuesday, losing to Neumann-Goretti 72-51 in a PIAA Tournament Class 4A game at Coatesville’s Ross Kersey Gymnasium.
For sure they would’ve been more competitive against Goretti (24-3), which used a career performance from Stephon Ashley-Wright to make it a rout by halftime.
The sophomore guard went on a wild tear, throwing down three 3-pointers in the final 2 ½ minutes of the first quarter – including a buzzer-beater – and scoring 22 points by intermission. He finished with 28 points.
Just four days after strangling Blue Mountain, holding the Eagles to a season-low 32 points in a first-round road win, Berks Catholic found itself defenseless against the Saints from Neumann-Goretti.
Snip Esterly and assistant coach Jason Linderman saw film of several Goretti games and realized immediately that as good as their BC team is defensively it couldn’t win by playing their standard man-to-man defense.
“Their guards were so quick, (we) didn’t think we could play ’em (man),” Esterly said. “They (would’ve) had so many mismatches.”
When Esterly opened in zone it was a signal Berks Catholic (23-5) could be in for a long night. . . when Ashley-Wright drilled an open 3-pointer 90 seconds into the game it was evident that a zone might not work, either.
“They had space to shoot it, and they were knockin’ ‘em down,” Josh McKoy said. “We knew their guards like to get downhill, but they came out hot tonight.”
Goretti ended the first quarter on a 13-0 run, erasing a small BC lead, then opened the second quarter with another 11-2 run. It led by 16 after 10 ½ minutes and by 18 at halftime.
“We’re not a bad defensive team,” Esterly said, “(but) their guards are fantastic.”
Torrey Brooks Jr., a 6-1 sophomore guard, knocked down three treys in the second quarter and finished with 17 points. Deshawn Yates, yet another sophomore guard, had 13 points.
Goretti coach Carl Arrigale was relying on so many underclassmen because – believe it or not – his squad is more short-handed than normal. Robert Wright III, Pennsylvania’s Class 4A Player of the Year last season, opted to play his senior season at a Florida academy this year. Amir Williams, a Hofstra recruit, has a shoulder injury and didn’t play Tuesday.
And still Berks Catholic couldn’t make it a game.
Had Kingston McKoy not gone out with a broken leg Jan. 23 against Reading High – when the Saints were the only remaining unbeaten team in District 3 – the trajectory of Berks Catholic’s season would’ve been entirely different.
“We could’ve done a lot better,” Josh McKoy said after scoring a team-high 13 points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds in his final high school game. “It’s all the ‘what-ifs’ but in reality we had to play without him, so we can’t really dwell on it.”
Berks Catholic played 14 games without Kingston McKoy, their point guard, best ballhandler, their defensive stopper and one of their top scorers and rebounders. They went 9-5 after his injury and managed to win four postseason games.
With him they would’ve been the odds-on favorite to win a third straight District 3 championship and with it get a better draw into the state tournament.
D3 champ Eastern York, by the way, remains alive after beating the sixth-place team from District 7 and the District 2 runner-up – a much easier road than Berks Catholic, the district’s third-place finisher, faced.
“Everybody knew that when Kingston went down it was gonna be tough as can be,” Esterly said. “If you look at it, we were two-to-three possessions away from going to the county final . . . two-to-three possessions away from going to the district final with the crew we have.
“I give credit to the kids, they hung in there; they didn’t give up. They tried the best they possibly could.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 7 | 12 | 16 | 16 | 51 |
| Neumann-Goretti | 16 | 21 | 16 | 19 | 72 |
| Saints (23-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Dominguez | 2-5 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Nein | 5-14 | 0-0 | 1-7 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| J. McKoy | 6-11 | 1-2 | 0-2 | 2 | 11 | 13 |
| Altimar | 3-5 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Komoro | 2-2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Suski | 1-3 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Diaz | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| Kozik | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Garcia | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nelton | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bennett | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Fidler | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Giesa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Linderman | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 21-47 | 5-10 | 4-14 | 6 | 30/33 | 51 |
| Saints (24-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Yates | 6-9 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
| Ashley-Wright | 11-20 | 2-2 | 4-8 | 2 | 5 | 28 |
| Brooks | 7-15 | 0-0 | 3-8 | 3 | 4 | 17 |
| Goukas | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Jenkins | 5-13 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0 | 7 | 11 |
| Briskin | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Clark | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kim | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tran | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Williams | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 30-65 | 3-5 | 9-25 | 6 | 25/28 | 72 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 12, Neumann-Goretti 3. Team rebounds: Berks Catholic 3, Neumann-Goretti 3.
