Tigers closing in on a little history after getting past Spartans
The Fleetwood Tigers won their first seven games this season. They’ve been on top in Berks III from the jump.
They haven’t won a division title in who-knows-how-long and understood this was the season to get it done. A loss at Tulpehocken Saturday put that dream in jeopardy; they realized a loss to Wyomissing Monday might’ve ended it.
“(We knew) this was one of the most important games Fleetwood’s ever played here,” said senior Will Ryan.
It’s no surprise the Tigers were a little tight at the outset. Ryan felt it, too. He didn’t score in the first half and understood he had to do better.
“(I knew) if we’re gonna win this game I had to show up in the second half,” he said.
Ryan was able to enjoy Senior Night a little more after he scored 12 second-half points and the Tigers withstood the Spartans’ late defensive assault in a 53-44 Berks Conference Division III victory that put them on the precipice of their first division title in more than 60 years.
Junior Jake Karnish scored nine of his team-high 17 points in the final quarter and hit four straight free throws to give the Tigers (7-2, 13-4) a little working margin over the Spartans (5-3, 8-7) heading into the final 10 days of the regular season.
A win in either of its final two league games — Feb. 3 at Brandywine Heights or Feb. 8 at Schuylkill Valley — will give the school its first division title in boys basketball since 1956, when the Tigers were one of the top programs in the league.
“This was a big obstacle for us,” Ryan said of Wyomissing, which scored big crossover wins last week against Antietam and Oley Valley. “I don’t know when (before this season) was the last time we beat Wyo, let alone twice in one season. We didn’t clinch the title yet, but it’s totally in reach, and we’re ready to go.”
Fleetwood has beaten Wyomissing twice this season. That’s something they hadn’t done over the last 40 years; it might never have happened before.
The Tigers won easily at Wyomissing 10 days earlier but there was nothing easy about Monday’s game, which was hotly contested and especially contentious over the final 10 minutes.
They trailed by five points after five minutes, went into halftime down a point, then had to duke it out over the final five minutes after Wyomissing put on a fullcourt defensive blitz.
The Tigers had a double-digit lead most of the fourth quarter but it wasn’t until Karnish knocked down both ends of a double-bonus with 46 seconds left that they could breath easily. Prior to that the Spartans kept pushing, with fullcourt pressure, and with Julian O’Brien finally finding the range.
Wyo’s senior guard, coming off huge performances against Antietam and Oley Valley, was relatively quiet for three quarters. The Spartans had trouble finding open shots against Fleetwood’s lane-clogging zone defenses. O’Brien got more aggressive in the final quarter and scored 11 points, half his game-high total of 22.
He hit a 3-pointer with 1:40 left, then followed with a nifty spin move to cut Fleetwood’s lead to 49-41, but that’s at close as it got.
The Tigers were able to beat the press enough times and make enough free throws — 10-of-15 in the final quarter — to maintain a safe cushion
“We knew we had to stay together, keep our mental focus,” Ryan said. “It was getting chippy and chirpy; we knew we weren’t going to play at that level, we were gonna play our game and that’s how we were gonna win the game.”
The Spartans hurt themselves with a whopping 24 turnovers — many of them unforced. They also had to play about 10 minutes without their No. 2 scorer and defensive stopper Amory Thompson, who picked up two early fouls and eventually fouled out; he scored just four points.
Wyo’s still in good shape to make the Berks playoffs. With one more win in their final three league games — two against Hamburg, one against Schuylkill Valley– they’ll nailed down a Berks III-IV runner-up spot. That’s because it has beaten each of the top three teams in Berks IV — Antietam, Oley Valley and Tulpehocken.
The Tigers have been through a demanding stretch recently; Tulpehocken was their fourth game in five days. Head coach Terry Sitler could see they were sluggish from playing three straight nights earlier in the week.
They were able to put that loss behind them quickly.
“I woke up Sunday and forgot about it,” Karnish said. “I knew we had to move on because this was an even bigger game. I’m excited right now. This was a big win. That’s a good team out there and we stayed cool, calm and collected and handled our business.”
The Tigers appear to be over the hump now.
“I expect we should win out,” Sitler said, “and make some history.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 11 | 9 | 7 | 17 | 44 |
| Fleetwood | 11 | 8 | 15 | 19 | 53 |
| Spartans (5-3, 8-7) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| O’Brien | 9-18 | 2-3 | 2-7 | 0 | 4 | 22 |
| Zechman | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Thompson | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Carter | 5-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Eisenhower | 3-4 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Hyde | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Schippers | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 19-35 | 2-3 | 4-14 | 8 | 20/25 | 44 |
| Tigers (7-2, 13-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Knoll | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Karnish | 4-10 | 8-10 | 1-3 | 1 | 12 | 17 |
| Gorman | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan | 4-9 | 3-4 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| Fickes | 3-5 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Soumas | 4-10 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Herb | 2-5 | 2-5 | 0-1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Hilburt | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Williams | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Svoboda | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-43 | 14-21 | 5-15 | 7 | 19/22 | 53 |
Turnovers: Wyomissing 24, Fleetwood 10.
