Hatboro-Horsham falls to Reading in PIAA AAAA 1st round
CUMRU >> After pulling two of the bigger upsets of the District One AAAA tournament by beating No. 8 seed Strath Haven in the first round and top-seeded Coatesville in the playback round Hatboro-Horsham looked poised to once again pull a stunner in Saturday’s PIAA Class AAAA playoff opener against Reading.
The Hatters outscored the Knights 19-1 in the second quarter to take a 10-point lead into halftime. But the problem for Hatboro-Horsham was it was outscored 60-25 in the other three quarters, as Reading over whelmed the Hatters 61-44.
“We were planning on spreading it out a little bit and taking some time off the clock,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Ed Enoch of the Hatters’ big second quarter. “Not stalling, just going into a bit of slower tempo. We got some pretty good looks and a couple of their shots I’m sure their coach would like to have back.”
Trailing 30-20 coming out of halftime, Reading opted to go to a full-court press for the entire second half and to say it was effective would be an understatement. The Hatters struggled to get the ball across mid-court the majority of the second half as they lost the second half 42-14.
“I was sorry to see the half end, I’d rather not have a half and just go right into the third quarter,” Enoch said. “We knew we were in the game but we knew seeing these guys on film how athletic they are [had the ability to come back.”
In the District 19-10 playback game against Academy Park, second-half turnovers doomed the Hatters as it lost a close 72-70 ball game. Turnovers once again reared its head as Hatboro-Horsham could not figure out how to bust the Reading press defense.
Similar to Academy Park, Reading had a very athletic team that Hatboro-Horsham had a hard time matching up with on both ends of the floor. The Red Knights worked the ball inside and out and hurt the Hatters in transition.
“Teams like this when they get behind they change their mojo,” Enoch said. “I don’t know what it is but they get aggressive and they turn it around.
“The press really really killed us. We weren’t aggressive against them. In the first half we attacked it and actually got some good looks off it.”
In the end the 10th seeded team from District One did not have enough fire power to hang with the top seeded team from District Three. The Hatters, however, will have some key players returning next year with state playoff experience under their belt. Forwards Clifton Moore and Jay Davis will return along with guard Brandon Cruz.
