Snip Esterly, Saints hoping to give Red Knights a run for it

No one’s spent more time preparing to play Reading High in the postseason than Snip Esterly.

He’ll face the Red Knights for the 20th time Friday in the Berks Conference championship game at Santander Arena at 8.

His first season as head coach at Central Catholic, 1990-91, he faced Donyell Marshall in the semifinals. At Berks Catholic he ran into Lonnie Walker IV in the championship game three straight seasons, from 2015-17.

The team he faces Friday doesn’t have any potential first-round NBA picks on the roster but it’s as good as any of the Reading High teams Esterly has played.

“Past Reading High teams, some of them ran, but they’ve never had teams that run like this team, or the team last year,” he said. “This team gets up and down the floor very quickly. They do it better than I’ve seen (from) Division III college teams.

“Even if you make a bucket on ’em (they get down the floor). I saw Muhlenberg hit a ‘3’ (in Wednesday’s semifinal) and the guy was celebrating, looking around, and the ball was past him and Reading was laying it up, that’s how quick they are.”

Junior guard Ruben Rodriguez is the league’s leading scorer at 19.3 points per game and a Player of the Year candidate.

Daniel Alcantara, who’s also a 1,000-point scorer, is averaging 17.1 points, but that’s deceiving. He lost a lot of minutes at midseason due to a discipline issue and came off the bench for several games.

Over his last three games — against Wilson in the regular season finale, and Wyomissing and Muhlenberg in the league playoffs — he has averaged 25.7 points.

Earlier in the year he scored 28 points against LaSalle College and 27 against Imhotep Charter.

The Red Knights have other reliable weapons. Myles Grey has 51 3-pointers and set a program record with 10 in a game this season against Twin Valley.

They are averaging a league-best 73.3 points and have scored 80 or more seven times. They put up 87 the last time they played Berks Catholic, a significant figure.

It’s the most points scored against Berks Catholic in its 11-year history, and the most ever scored against an Esterly team in the regular season.

You’d have to go back 30 years, to an 87-66 loss to Scotland in the PIAA semifinals, to find another team put up that many against one of his team.

Reading’s scoring output says a lot, considering Esterly’s penchant for defense and his team’s success at executing on that end of the floor. Most of his better teams allow an average of 40 or fewer points.

This Saints team is designed a little differently. Its 20-3 record has been built more on its scoring ability. Josiah Jordan averages 15.7 points, Ryan Koch 13.8 and Aidan Sands 12.3. They’ve hit a program-record 159 3-pointers — an average of nearly seven per game, among the highest rates in Berks history.

Koch has 50 treys, Sands 36 and Jack Miller 35.

They like to get out in transition and run the floor; that sometimes catches the ire of their coach. He prefers a more patient style, especially when they’ve got a lead late in the game. Esterly felt that was an issue in a 41-40 semifinal win against Exeter.

Snip Esterly vs. Reading	Championship games
2019	Reading High	33	Berks Catholic	31
2018	Berks Catholic	51	Reading High	46
2017	Reading High	61	Berks Catholic	39
2016	Reading High	67	Berks Catholic	39
2015	Reading High	52	Berks Catholic	43
2013	Berks Catholic	62	Reading High	49
2011	Reading High	58	Central Catholic	50
1999	Reading High	55	Central Catholic	44
1996	Central Catholic	54	Reading High	51 (OT)
1995	Reading High	62	Central Catholic	50
1992	Reading High	54	Central Catholic	51

He knows pace will be critical against the Red Knights (21-3). They did a better job of that in the first game, a 67-51 loss at the Geigle Jan. 3, than in the second meeting, an 87-70 loss at Wolf Gymnasium.

“We’ve gotta take care of the ball, and show more patience on offense,” Esterly said. “Quick shots lead to their points.”

When they played three weeks ago the Saints had the lead early in the third quarter and stayed close into the fourth before Rodriguez and the Red Knights pulled away.

They were tied as late as 2 1/2 minutes into the third quarter when Jordan hit a 3-pointer to make it 46-46. The Saints stayed close by hitting 12-of-26 3’s; in the first meeting they made just 6-of-19, and several of those came in the fourth quarter with the game well out of hand.

Rodriguez, a first-team All-State pick as a sophomore, finished with a game-high 35 points, 25 in the second half. He was good on 16-of-25 shots from the floor.

Alcantara, who didn’t play in the first meeting, scored 24 in the second. Xavier Davis had a career-high 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting. Overall, the Red Knights shot 54 percent .

Friday marks Esterly’s record 18th appearance in a Berks title game. He’s won it eight times. Only Kutztown’s John Silan, with 13, owns more Berks championships.

This will be Esterly’s 12th championship meeting against Reading. He’s beaten them three times: In 2018 and 2013 with Berks Catholic and in 1996 with Central Catholic, a 54-51 overtime thriller.

Overall, he’s gone 5-14 against Reading in Berks playoff games. Five of those losses came by five points or less, including the most recent when Daniel “Big Shot” Colter knocked down a jumper from the elbow with 1.2 seconds left for a 33-31 win.

The greatest of the match-ups might’ve been a 2010 semifinal, before some 7,000 at Santander Arena. The Red Knights stormed back from a 12-point deficit to win win 62-27 and hand Central Catholic’s its first loss after a 23-0 start.

“I always thought we had a chance to beat ’em,” Esterly said. “We were always prepared for them. We’ve had good teams over the years, and we’ve been very, very competitive with them at times. But there are some years where they’re just too good, and they took care of things.”