Spartans’ amazing Amaya Stewart silences Saints with game-winning ‘3’
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Amaya Stewart heard the chants from Berks Catholic’s student section.
“Over-rated! Over-rated! Over-rated!”
Those chants stopped abruptly when Stewart hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds left to lift Wyomissing to a dramatic 24-23 victory over Berks Catholic Monday in a District 3 Class 4A semifinal at Wolf Gymnasium.
“I heard it,” Stewart said of the jeers. “They were chanting overrated. All I could do was smile because I finally know I’m a great player. For people to say that makes it 10 times better. After I made that 3 the whole gym went quiet.”
The third-seeded Spartans (25-2) will face top-seeded and defending champion Delone Catholic for the district championship Thursday at 11 a.m. at Hershey’s Giant Center.
Stewart, a sophomore, can now add district finalist to her list of accomplishments that includes a Berks Player of the Year award and a BCIAA championship, also a first for Wyomissing.
Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders wrote his basketball story as a two-time All-Berks player at Antietam before heading to Alvernia where he was a part of the 1997 Final Four team. Monday night spectators watched Stewart add another chapter to hers.
“You hear stories of this person and that person playing basketball and then maybe you have the opportunity to go see them play,” Anders said. “I can give you a whole bunch of names from the county that I watched when I was growing up. (Amaya) is writing her story right now.”
The Saints played without their tallest player, 5-10 forward Sydney Corado, who was out with an illness. Still, they were able to neutralize Stewart — until the final two minutes of the game.
The 6-1 center had struggled up to that point as Berks Catholic crowded the paint and forced Wyomissing to beat them from outside. The third-seeded Spartans only had five points on 2-for-18 shooting in the first half; Stewart was 1-for-6 with two points.
“Bob Birmingham is a Hall of Fame coach with an amazing team and program,” Anders said. “So to do what we did tonight, we showed great perseverance. Just continue to play, stay with the script, play your game, and good things happen.”
Second-seeded Berks Catholic (19-7) managed to score only eight first-half points on 3-of-14 shooting; six of the points came on 3’s from senior Caraline Herb. Two of the best defenses in Berks came to play and 5-8 sophomore Molly McFadden did a great job defending Stewart.
McFadden scored the first bucket of the third quarter before Herb took a charge to give the Saints the ball back with 6:25 left. Wyomissing’s Audrey Hurleman hit a layup off an assist from Stewart before Herb hit a 3-pointer and Madison Langdon made a layup to give the Saints their largest lead of the game at 15-7.
The Spartans started to get it going in the third quarter as Maddie Campbell hit a jumper, Stewart sank four straight free throws, and Annie McCaffrey made a bucket during an 8-0 run. McFadden’s free throw to end the quarter had Berks Catholic up 16-15 going to the fourth.
Hurleman scored at the rim to give the Spartans the lead before Gianna Roberts knocked down a trey to take it back at 19-17. Herb hit a pull-up jumper from the baseline with 2:26 left to expand the lead to four.
Stewart finished at the rim before Herb sank two free throws to give the Saints a 23-19 lead with 42.5 seconds left. Stewart then turned the ball over on the next possession and the “over-rated” chants began.
Berks Catholic missed the front end of a one-and-one and turned the ball over on a long inbounds pass in the final seconds. The rest is history.
Stewart clanked in a deep two-pointer from the top of the key to make it 23-21 with 17.8 seconds left, then drained a 3-pointer from the same spot — just a few inches back — with 4.0 seconds left.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Stewart said. “We needed to get a shot off. I should have shot it when I double-dribbled. (This time) there was no hesitation.”
Hurleman stole the ensuing deep inbounds pass to seal the victory.
Stewart finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks for the Spartans.
Herb, an All-Berks pick, had 13 points and seven rebounds to lead the Saints, who will face Eastern York in the third-place game Thursday at 7 at Wolf Gymnasium.
Wyomissing is seeking its first district championship title; the Spartans appeared in the title game in 1979 and 2004.
“I’ve only been there once to watch a Reading High game,” Stewart said of the Giant Center. “I can’t wait to get out on that floor. I can’t wait.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 5 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 23 |
| Wyomissing | 3 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 24 |
| Spartans (25-2) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Stewart | 4-12 | 4-4 | 1-1 | 1 | 9 | 13 |
| Hardy | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| McCaffrey | 1-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Loeb | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hurleman | 2-5 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| Zechman | 0-3 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Campbell | 1-6 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Totals | 9-35 | 5-9 | 1-7 | 3 | 26-28 | 24 |
| Saints (19-7) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Herb | 4-9 | 2-2 | 3-8 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| Langdon | 1-7 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| McFadden | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| G. Roberts | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1-6 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Brown | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Evans | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mirenda | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 8-29 | 3-6 | 4-18 | 5 | 18-20 | 23 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 17, Wyomissing 19.
