Reading holds off a furious Chester comeback from 18 down
PIAA CLASS 6A BOYS BASKETBALL
CHESTER >> Weshly Rosario had the right mindset at halftime, though he and his Reading teammates let it wane by the end of the third quarter.
Up 13 at the break at the Fred Pickett Gymnasium Saturday in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A Tournament, the sophomore guard knew that Chester wasn’t going to go quietly, even after a first half of haymakers.
“We went to the locker room and said, this is going to be crazy and we need to stay ready,” Rosario said. “We know we can finish good if we can stay together.”
But when the Red Knights unleashed their next salvo, knocking the Clippers down 18 points late in the third quarter, a little overconfidence crept in. For just a moment, Reading thought it might have one foot in the second round.
Instead, Reading required every second of the 32 minutes and a fortunate call at the buzzer to get there.
Chester trailed the entire way, and a shot by Dallas Thompson at the horn where he and Reading forward Xavier Beatty made a lot of contact went uncalled as Reading survived a 65-63 thriller.
Thompson had two looks to try to tie or go ahead in the final 12 seconds. The first was a drive on which Reading’s Nicholas Sosa tied him up before he got a shot off. The possession arrow pointed Reading’s way, and Rosario made one of two at the line to make it 65-63.
With 5.6 seconds left and the length of the court to go, Dante Atkinson filtered the ball to Thompson down the left wing. Thompson drove baseline and released a floater 10 feet from the basket as Beatty leapt to contest. Thompson hit the deck, the shot hit the back of the backboard and the referees ruled the clock had hit all zeroes.
“It was no hesitation,” Thompson said. “I know my role, knew what I had to do was get to the basket. I believed it should’ve