Spotlight shines on Luis Valentin, Muhls as they end Saints’ perfect start
Luis Valentin couldn’t find his way out of the spotlight Friday night.
There were times the Muhlenberg senior basked in it, others when he was scorched by its heat.
In a frantic final minute against unbeaten Berks Catholic he was directly involved in four turnovers, each of which appeared to be game-turning — until the next happened.
“It had ups and downs obviously,” Valentine said of his game.
In the end his steal and layup with 48 seconds left loomed as the pivotal play as the Muhls held off the unbeaten Saints 48-46 in a thrilling Berks Conference crossover game at Laureldale.
“He’s a warrior,” Muhls coach Matt Flowers said of Valentin. “He had an emotional week. He had a death in his family, and he just kept playing. He practiced here, he practiced there; we didn’t give up on him.”
Even when things went wrong for Valentin his teammates were there to pick him up, none moreso than J’Daniel Mosquera, who knocked down both ends of a double bonus with 1.6 seconds remaining to snap a 46-46 tie.
After his steal gave the Muhls (3-2 Berks I, 8-5) a 46-42 lead Valentin committed a pair of turnovers, both as he inbounded the ball from the baseline. On the first, with 35 seconds to go, he was called for a five-second violation. On the next he moved off the spot, a violation.
In between he forced a turnover when he deflected Ryan Koch’s inbounds pass back off Koch.
The wild final minute included four turnovers — three consecutive with the clock moving less than a second — six timeouts, a lengthy discussion at the scoring table over Berks Catholic’s remaining timeouts, and a gang of pivotal plays, most involving Valentin.
Despite the dramatic emotional turns Valentin hung in there to help his team pull off the biggest upset of the season in the Berks Conference.
“My coach, my teammates always keep me in check,” he said. “They make sure I don’t get too low, make sure I don’t get too hype.”
“Luis made a mistake, everybody picked him back up,” Flowers said. “Every time we were down (I told them): Fellas, we’ve been here before, let’s keep picking each other up.”
Xzayvion Robertson picked the Muhls up all night long with a game-high 24 points, including 17 in the first half.
When Robertson has it going, as he did Friday when he hit 4-of-6 shots from 3-point range and seemed to get to the rack at will, he’s as tough to stop as anyone around. He opened the season with 26 points in a win over Central Dauphin and had 28 in a win over Susquehanna Township.
“He’s explosive,” Flowers said. “He gets downhill when he wants, (and) he’s knocking the 3-ball down right now.”
The Saints (5-1 Berks II, 12-1), who were off to their best start since their inaugural season in 2011-12, couldn’t find a way to stop him.
They struggled to find ways to score, too. They seemed frozen by Muhlenberg’s 3-2 and 2-3 zone looks, which slow them and kept them away from the basket. The Saints, who were averaging seven 3-pointers per game, went 4-for-20 from beyond the arc. They were held to a season-low point total and nearly 20 points below their average.
“We wanted to get out on their shooters, stop the guards from going downhill,” Flowers said. “I thought we did a great job doing that.”
Despite their poor shooting the Saints had a chance at the end. They were within 43-42 on Kingston McKoy’s basket with 2:06 left and tied it on Josiah Jordan’s follow with 26 seconds left, the last of his 20 points.
In between the Saints had a pair of costly turnovers, among eight during the second half.
“We didn’t play a good game,” said Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly, who was disappointed by the way his team attacked the zone. “We were just so sloppy. We had (the kind of) turnovers we didn’t do in (the last) two years.”
After being down by as many as eight points in the first half the Saints came back to take the lead in the third quarter. They surged ahead with an 8-0 opening run, sparked by a pair of 3-pointers from Koch. They led by as many as five points after Jordan’s three-point play with 3:58 to go in the third quarter but couldn’t sustain it.
After Mosquera’s free throws Berks Catholic still had a chance to win it but Jack Miller’s rushed 3-pointer at the buzzer glanced off the rim.
“Jack couldn’t get a good handle on it because there wasn’t enough time,” Esterly said. “If there was maybe a half-second more he could’ve grabbed it (but) he just had to chuck it. But it was close. I thought it was going to bank in.”
After an up-and-down first half of the season this win may be the boost Flowers and the Muhls were looking for as they try to make a return to the District 3 Class 5A Tournament. A strong finish could net them a first-round home game.
“This is a pretty big win,” Valentin said. “We knew they were undefeated and we wanted to give them their first loss. They’re a really good team. For us to get a win it really puts us in the right direction.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Berks Catholic | 14 | 8 | 13 | 11 | 46 |
| Muhlenberg | 13 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 48 |
| Saints (12-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Geddio | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Jordan | 8-15 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 3 | 4 | 20 |
| Koch | 3-8 | 2-2 | 3-8 | 1 | 7 | 11 |
| Miller | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1-6 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| J. McKoy | 3-4 | 4-4 | 0-1 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| K. McKoy | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Nein | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Lawlor | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 16-42 | 10-14 | 4-20 | 9 | 33-37 | 46 |
| Muhls (8-5) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Robertson | 8-13 | 4-6 | 4-6 | 2 | 1 | 24 |
| Mosquera | 1-6 | 2-3 | 1-2 | 1 | 7 | 5 |
| Valentin | 2-7 | 1-2 | 1-4 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Alcantara | 2-8 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Adonis | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Towles | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Branch | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Archie | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Collado | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-46 | 7-11 | 71-7 | 6 | 20-23 | 48 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 11, Muhlenberg 3.
