Wins over Reading few, far between for GM
Before they headed to the Geigle on Jan. 13, Gov. Mifflin basketball coach Kyle Conrad told his players about his senior season, when he and the Mustangs ventured into the fabled arena and took down the Red Knights.
He might as well have been talking about the moon landing, Watergate or the Bay of Pigs – other historical facts they might have read about in history class but weren’t around to witness themselves.
It had been 19 years since Conrad scored 18 points to lead the Mustangs to that 55-47 win, and 18 years since Mifflin last beat Reading.
In the years since the Mustangs dropped 37 straight meetings – some by 40 points or more, one by 52 – before finally snapping that grueling streak with an eye-opening 55-48 win.
“I don’t think a lot of people would’ve picked us in that game,” Conrad said, “but we believe we can win games like that.”
The win will be a tremendous boost to the Mustangs’ playoff hopes, both in the Berks Conference in District 3 Class 6A.
It seemed quite unlikely given the way they played in a 64-36 loss to Warwick just two days earlier, and given they way they faded down the stretch in critical league losses to Muhlenberg and Wilson.
Conrad was despondent after seeing those late leads slip away but still felt his relatively young lineup – which includes four juniors and a senior — was going to figure it out.
Monday they did. Their 14-point, third-quarter lead was trimmed to one on a three-point play by Denim Adams deep in the fourth quarter but they held on after that, hitting enough free throws to keep the Red Knights at bay.
“Any good team has to go through some growing pains, get battle-tested,” Conrad said. “We talked about being better for it in the end after those losses (to Muhlenberg and Wilson). Some of that’s just experience, learning from it, not repeating the same mistakes.”
Big as Mifflin’s breakthrough win was it’s not the be-all and end-all, and Conrad wants to make sure his guys understand that.
In 2000-01 Mifflin followed up the win over Reading with a loss to Wilson. That cost the Mustangs the Berks I title. They ended up in a three-way tie, then lost to the Red Knights in a tiebreaker.
“It was a very exciting night for our team,” Conrad said of Monday’s win, “but we don’t want that to be the pinnacle of our season.”
••• Reading High’s loss to
Gov. Mifflin took a little of the edge off of tonight’s rematch against Wilson — but not much.
The Bulldogs took the first meeting 57-34, a wild one at the Geigle Dec. 20 that saw them play most of the second half minus two starters.
The Red Knights have played much better since, winning six straight before Monday’s stumble.
The Bulldogs, despite their impressive record, experienced some bumps the first month of the season but seem to be hitting stride.
Wilson hasn’t swept its season series against Reading since 2013-14, when it went 4-0 against the Red Knights — Lonnie Walker IV’s freshman season.
No matter what happens tonight it’s not likely to matter
in three weeks when the rivals run into each other again in the league playoffs — and then shortly after that in districts, where they could meet for a fourth time.
• • •
At 13-1 Wilson is off to one of the best starts in program history.
The only better one came in 1986-87 when they won their first 27 games and finished 29-2 — a program record for wins. That team included seniors Dave Gehris and Scott Goetz and a junior who’s now coaching for the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA — Chris Finch.
A win tonight over Reading would give the Bulldogs their best start since going 16-1 in 2013-14.
• • •
It might’ve been prudent for Berks Catholic to back off on its schedule this year ... say, drop state-level programs such as Executive Education Academy, Constitution or Abington Heights in what is a rebuilding season for the Saints.
Coach Snip Esterly wanted none of that.
“That wouldn’t be right,” said Esterly, who graduated his top eight scorers, including a pair of 1,000-point scorers. “They played us (when we had strong team). I didn’t want to do that.”
As such, the Saints will battle to squeeze into the District 3 Class 4A Tournament field.
The Berks II leaders will be severely tested over the next week, with games at Lancaster Catholic (131) Saturday, against Wilson Tuesday, Steel-High Wednesday and at Wyomissing Thursday.
• • • Brandywine Heights took a huge step toward its first division title in more than 30 years with a 59-44 win over Schuylkill Valley last Monday.
The Bullets are now two games clear of everyone in the division, including the preseason favorite Panthers.
The Bullets held league scoring leader Malachi Kauffman to a season-low 15 points.
Brandywine’s last division title came in 1988-89, when it finished 17-10.