Thriller: Reading High beats Roman Catholic for third PIAA championship (updated)
(This story will be updated later tonight with additional details and postgame reaction.)
HERSHEY — Myles Grey clinched Reading High’s third state championship with a pair of free throws with 11.4 seconds left in overtime Saturday, giving the Red Knights a thrilling 63-56 overtime victory against defending champ Roman Catholic.
The Red Knight (32-1) scored the final nine points of game, holding the Cahillites (27-4) scoreless over the final 2:13. They made 8-of-10 free throws in OT, which Aris Rodriguez punctuated with a slam dunk off Nick Chapman’s steal.
The Red Knights, who also won titles in 2017 and 2021, tied the Berks record for wins in a season, set by Reading High in 1983 and equaled by Central Catholic in 1996.
Aris Rodriguez finished with 16 points and Myles Grey had 14 for Reading. Ruben Rodriguez had eight points to go with seven assists and nine rebounds.
Xzayvier Brown scored a game-high 23 for Roman.
The Red Knights took their first lead at 8-6, on a 3-pointer by Aris Rodriguez that capped an 8-0 run.
Reading led 12-10 after one period when Nick Chapman’s baseline drive rolled around the rim and then in at the buzzer.
The Red Knights used a 9-0 run midway through the second quarter to take charge, Ruben Rodriguez’s first basket — a 3-pointer — giving them a 21-13 lead 3:21 before the half. Rodriguez picked up two early fouls and went to the bench with 1:48 left in the first quarter; he remained there for nearly four minutes.
Myles Grey had seven first-half points for Reading, helping it to a 23-19 halftime lead. Roman turned the ball over 11 times in the opening half and didn’t make a 3pointer
The championship game appearance was the third for Reading in seven years. The Red Knights ended more than a century of frustration when they broke through in 2017 to win their first state championship. Fueled by McDonald’s All-American Lonnie Walker IV, the Red Knights beat Pine-Richland 64-60, with Walker — the Red Knights’ all-time leading scorer — producing a game-high 22 points.
The Red Knights returned four years later and pulled off one of the great upsets in PIAA Tournament history as they bested nationally ranked Archbishop Wood — a Philly All-Star team stocked with four Division I players — 58-57. Ruben Rodriguez scored 12 points and started in the backcourt alongside Myles Grey.
The Cahillites are a step above anyone Reading has faced to date. They are true royalty when it comes to Pennsylvania big-school basketball. They have gone 28-2 in the state tournament over the past nine years, with four PIAA championships.
They beat Catholic League rival Archbishop Wood 77-65 for the title last year and beat the Vikings three times this season – most recently 66-56 in a state semifinal. Many who watch the Philly hoops scene closely expected Wood to beat the short-handed Cahillites Tuesday.
Roman entered the state tournament minus a pair of starters, Jermai Stewart-Herring, a second-team all-league guard who’s second on the team in scoring, and Erik Oliver-Bush, a 6-4 guard. Neither was eligible for PIAA postseason play after transferring to Roman before this season.
The Cahillites have had some close calls without them. They needed overtime to squeeze past Lower Merion 60-56 in the second round. They led Wood by just two entering the fourth quarter before St. Joseph’s recruit Xzayvier Brown scored 15 points over the final eight minutes.
Roman has 21 points and 10 rebounds per game sitting on the bench with Stewart-Herring and Oliver-Bush unable to play. That’s become a bit of a rallying point.
“Everyone picked against us (after we lost those two players),” Roman coach Chris McNesby told cityofbasketballlove.com, “but I looked at it like as long as we have Xzayvier Brown, we have a chance. He controls tempo, he dictates pace, he puts everybody in the right spot.”
Brown is one of three 1,000-point scorers on his team.
It’s hard to believe it had been 13 years since Reading and Roman played, and even more incredible that they kept missing each other in the state tournament in recent years.
Roman vs. Reading was the game everyone wanted to see in 2017 when Walker IV was a senior. Walker played with some of Roman’s players in the AAU circuit, and they tried to lure him to transfer and win a state title with them.
That dream match-up never came off as Roman was stunned in the first round by Perkiomen Valley; Walked stayed true to Reading and led it to its first state title.
They were close to playing the year before but Reading was knocked off in the state semifinals by Allderdice. Roman beat ‘Dice for the championship.
They were in the same quadrant of the bracket in 2018 and were destined to meet but Reading was knocked off in the second round by C.B. West in overtime.
They could’ve met last year, too. The Red Knights nearly came all the way back from a 25-point deficit in a 64-58 second-round loss to Archbishop Wood. The Vikings used that as a springboard to reach the championship game. With Daniel Alcantara on the floor, the Knights probably would’ve gotten past Wood and challenged Roman, but he was lost for the season with a broken back early in the playoffs.
The last time Roman and Reading met they needed an extra eight minutes to decide it. That came in a 2010 state second-round game at Coatesville. The Cahillites pulled away in the second OT for a deceiving 62-47 win.
Roman and Reading have played often over the years but the Red Knights haven’t won in the series since the 1974-75 season, when Jim Gano was the coach and Pete Pasko was the leading scorer. They’ve lost 11 straight since, most of them in the 1980’s when the team met almost every season. They have played just four times since 2000.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | |
| Reading HIgh | 12 | 11 | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Roman Catholic | 10 | 9 | 20 | 14 | 3 |
| Red Knights (32-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Burdine | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Cruz | 1-1 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| R. Rodriguez | 2-7 | 3-4 | 12 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| Grey | 4-11 | 4-5 | 2-5 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| A Rodriguez | 5-13 | 3-7 | 3-6 | 0 | 3 | 16 |
| Osumanu | 2-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Chapman | 3-6 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| Ortega | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Totals | 20-48 | 16-24 | 7-15 | 13 | 28-33 | 63 |
| Cahillites (27-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Brown | 5-14 | 12-15 | 1-6 | 3 | 4 | 23 |
| Cottrell | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| Finkley | 2-4 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Sh. Jackson | 7-12 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 1 | 11 | 17 |
| Hillman | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jackson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-38 | 19-25 | 3-12 | 7 | 25-29 | 56 |
Turnovers: Reading High 18, Roman Catholic 16.Fouled out: Burdine, Felder, Cottrell.
