RHS uses pressure to overcome Wyomissing; Berks Catholic handles Fleetwood

Legendary football coach Herman Boone used to say his Split Back Veer offense was like Novocaine: Give it time and it works.

Reading High’s fullcourt press was like that Saturday in the BCIAA girls quarterfinals. It took a while for it to take full effect but once it did was the difference in the Red Knights’ 53-51 win over Wyomissing at Gov. Mifflin Intermediate.

The seventh-seeded Red Knights (13-10) forced turnovers on five of Wyomissing’s final seven possessions, allowing them to sneak past the secondseeded Spartans (17-6) and into Tuesday’s semifinals against Berks Catholic, a 57-45 winner over Fleetwood in the second game.

“We tell them to keep digging, keep digging, keep digging until it works out in our favor,” said Reading coach Tanisha Giddens-Beatty. “I stress defense every single day – that’s our bread and butter.”

The Berks III champion Spartans took their final lead at 49-48 on a drive by Lily Seyfert, who played a terrific second half, scoring 19 of her game-high 27 points.

After a sluggish first half that saw them struggle to set up in the halfcourt, the Spartans came out fast in the second half, scoring nine of the first 11 points to erase a six-point halftime deficit.

Seyfert was at the core of that turnaround, dribbling through Reading’s defensive pressure to hit 5-of-9 shots from the field and 9-of-10 from the line after intermission.

Her free throws with 5:40 left gave Wyomissing its biggest lead at 41-37, but the offense dried up over the final 90 seconds.

A steal and basket by Katara Key, who scored a team-high 18 points, gave Reading the lead for good at 51-49 with 1:07 to go. Another steal, by Kya Washington, who finished with 14 points, set up a free throw by freshman Glenda Vazquez for a 52-49 lead with 54 seconds left.

Wyomissing’s Abby Doyle, who had 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, hit twice at the line to make it a onepoint game with 44 seconds left but the Spartans never set up for another shot. The Red Knights forced a jump ball with 5.5 seconds to go and Vazquez again hit the first of a two-shot foul with 3.2 seconds left.

The Spartans turned the ball over 10 times in the final quarter, five of them in the last two minutes.

“We have to be able to play defense,” Giddens-Beatty said. “We have to be able to get stops. That third quarter, we came out flat. They were able to regroup and get it back.”

Handling that game-long pressure will be Berks Catholic’s next task. Saturday the undersized Saints (15-8) had to contend with a taller Fleetwood team and they handled it just fine.

Actually, more than fine. They dominated the third-seeded Tigers (13-9) on the boards, out-rebounding them 28-15 in the first half and by 15 overall.

The sixth-seeded Saints didn’t allow Fleetwood to get an offensive rebound for the first 11 minutes.

“We’ve got to box out and rebound,” said Berks Catholic coach Bob Birmingham. “We harp on that all the time. I thought our big kids – and they’re 5-8, they’re not big kids – but I thought we boxed out really well. We went after the ball.”

Caroline Reedy had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Berks Catholic. Point guard Sophie Emkey had 10 points, and Caraline Herb came off the bench to score 10 points, all in the first half. The Saints also got nine points off the bench from Zariya Holt.

“We’re not the greatest basketball players, but we’re athletic, and we’re pretty strong,” Birmingham said. “When they do get a vody on somebody, we usually coming down with (the ball).”

Herb and Emkey knocked down backto-back 3-pointers to spark an 8-0 run late in the first half that put the Saints on top for good. They were up nine at the half and by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter.

The Saints have won four straight after a rough patch that saw them lose 5-of-6. They played some good teams in that stretch – Lancaster Catholic, State College and Bethlehem Freedom – but are better for it, Birmingham said.

“Right now, we’re right where we want to be,” he said. “We’re playing better than we played three or four weeks ago. We played those tough teams to get us ready for this sort of thing.”