Berks Catholic’s hardwood stroll earns first District 3 crown since 2013
HERSHEY>> Perhaps the big victory over defending 6A state champion Reading at Santander Arena to win the Berks League a couple of weeks back was the springboard.
Whatever the causes, Berks Catholic completed making an absolute meal of the District 3 4A bracket Thursday night with a wire-to-wire 46-26 win over Mid-Penn Conference foe Bishop McDevitt on the hardwood at Giant Center to win the title.
The Saints entered the 4A tourney as the No. 2 seed behind Lancaster Catholic — which lost to McDevitt earlier in the competition — and won its three contests by an average of exactly 20 points to cruise to the school’s first District 3 title since 2013, which occurred in its second season of existence (Berks Catholic was formed in 2011 after Reading Central Catholic was merged with Holy Name and the new school opened on the latter’s campus).
BC hardly played its best game of the season but it never mattered. The Saints opened against McD on a 9-0 run and were never threatened. The closest Harrisburg’s Crusaders got to the lead after that was its first basket of night to make it a 9-3 game.
Businesslike. Non-descript. Whatever adjective phrase of your choice, the Saints (26-2) took care of what they needed to with a minimum of drama, from the start.
“I thought our experience showed a little bit more,” BC head coach Snip Esterly said. “They’re (McDevitt) like us last year. We had three sophomores and two juniors. They’re in the same boat this year. We’re a year older. And we played Reading in Santander Arena, so the kids weren’t in awe at all in an arena like this (Giant Center).
“Our ball movement, our unselfishness, is second to none. These guys are unbelievable. I thought (McDevitt) was gonna make a run but that run never happened because we didn’t let them.”
In the process, Esterly won his 703rd career game, making him the winningest coach in District 3 history. It was, apparently, news to him.
“I had no clue,” he said. “I don’t tweet, so I wouldn’t know — that stuff’s foreign to me. I didn’t know. But so many people have made this possible, it’s unbelievable.”
The Saints locked down the paint with Keba Mitchell on the prowl. The 6-foot-3 senior center’s presence nullified, to a large extent, any inside game McD had hoped to establish. Forced to the perimeter, the Crusaders did not shoot particularly well. And with that going on, avenues back into the contest were closed.
“The kids know Keba is behind them and he’s going to clean up things,” Esterly said. Mitchell finished with nine points and 11 rebounds.
BC led 13-4 after one and 23-14 at the break, but it never felt like McD was going to bust out. The Crusaders did not hit a third-quarter shot until less than half the quarter remained, by which time the margin had reached 29-15. The Saints closed it out with a 14-7 final stanza.
Luis Garcia was BC’s offensive sparkplug from his guard slot. The 5-8 junior deposited 14 points to lead all scorers.
Kyran Mitchell hit a pair of big 3-pointers: His first capped the 9-0 run to commence things; his second was the first bucket after the halftime break and pushed BC’s lead to 26-12, as if to announce nothing was about to change. Which, of course, it didn’t.
District 3 4A championship
at Giant Center
Berks Catholic 46, Bishop McDevitt 26
McDevitt – 4 8 7 7 — 26
Berks Catholic – 13 10 9 14 — 46
Bishop McDevitt
Davis 3 2-2 8, Lee 2 3-4 7, Kelly 0 3-6 3, Stuart 3 0-0 6, Smith 0 1-2 1, Marisco 0 0-1 0. Totals: 8 10-16 26.
3-pointers: none.
Berks Catholic
Garcia 4 6-6 14, Keba Mitchell 4 1-4 9, Kyran Mitchell 2 2-2 8, Dabney 3 0-0 6, Jack 2 2-5 6, Painton 0 2-2 2, Gaspari 0 1-2 1. Totals: 15 14-21 46.
3-pointers: 2 (Kyran Mitchell 2)
