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District 3 6A: Reading holds off Chambersburg for title

03/03/2018, 6:15pm EST
By Michael Bullock

Ricki Lopez (above) and Reading held off Chambersburg to win its second district title in three years. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HERSHEY — Ricki Lopez saved his very, very best for the very, very end.

And since the 6-foot-5 senior was able to make a number of timely late plays, he and his jubilant Reading High teammates are probably continuing to celebrate their latest memorable result.

A result with a gold-tinted hue attached to it.

Scoring eight of his 10 points in the final three-plus minutes, Lopez’s late burst at the offensive end helped propel Reading to a 46-43 victory over a stubborn Chambersburg squad that closed in a hurry in the championship game of the District 3 Class 6A basketball playoffs Saturday at Giant Center.

Wesley Butler added 10 points and Xavier Starks chimed in with nine for Rick Perez’s Red Knights (24-4), who claimed their second District 3 crown in three seasons and their record 21st overall.

Next up for Reading, which on Saturday will begin defense of the PIAA Class 6A championship it won last March, is a date with Bensalem, District 1’s 10th seed, at a District 3 venue.

Joel Torres pocketed 15 points, Cade Brindle finished with 12 and Noah Beidel banked nine for Shawn Shreffler’s Trojans (19-5), who trailed 34-19 with three-plus minutes to go in the third quarter yet were right there at the end thanks to some clutch deep shooting down the stretch.

Chasing its first District 3 championship since the 2012 club prevailed and the ninth in the school’s history, Chambersburg will meet Pocono Mountain West or Emmaus in the opening round of the state playoffs. However, District 11’s third-place game won’t be contested until Monday night.

While Reading appeared poised to really open things up when Daniel Colter drained a mid-range baseline jumper with 3:15 that made it 34-19 — off a Lopez kick — Brindle and Seth Brouse splashed deep looks moments later to give the Trojans some momentum.

Once the Red Knights’ cushion dwindled to six (38-32) on the first of Beidel’s three triples, Lopez began digging in under the hoop and leaving a sizable footprint.

What followed was those eight needed points — two on a stickback, two on an easy finish at the bucket off a slick Butler dish and then two more on another layup after the Knights solved pressure, reached midcourt and Bobby Heath saw Lopez under the hoop.

That hoop, with 25 seconds remaining, had Reading up 44-40.

“I knew the ball was coming,” recalled Lopez, who matched Colter with a team-high four rebounds, dished out a pair of assists and blocked three shots. “When I saw I was alone and I saw Bobby already had the ball [at midcourt], I knew that it was coming and I was ready.

“I was just trying to spread out the court, because I saw they were all pressing and I thought about a leakout,” Lopez added. “And that’s what happened.”

When Brindle missed a really deep look moments later, he tagged Lopez with 16.1 seconds and sent him to the foul line. Lopez didn’t flinch, sinking both freebies to up the Knights’ lead to six.

Things were still remarkably interesting when Brindle halved Chambersburg’s deficit by sinking another area-code jumper with 4.4 showing on Giant Center’s massive scoreboard clock, forcing the desperate Trojans to foul Hector “R.J.” Dixon and send him to the line. Just 1.5 remained.

Dixon missed, however, and Tyler Collier soared for the carom. What followed was lots of contact, several whistles, what was thought to be the final horn and a midcourt discussion amongst the zebras. What they eventually decided was to assess a common foul on Lopez and put 0.7 on the clock.

“We practice taking the foul under five seconds, but we didn’t want that foul,” admitted Perez. “If it had been something on the perimeter and we didn’t want any long heaves, yes, but not that one. I saw it when the referees were talking, so we were already coaching our way through it.

“And we got a chance to celebrate twice.”

Further drama became moot moments later when the 6-8 Collier missed the front end and Colter managed to hang on long enough for the horn to sound again. While Reading had begun to bounce around when the Red Knights heard the first horn, this time their celebration was good to go.

No. 21 was in the bag.

While No. 21 appeared as if it was going to come much easier than it ultimately did, that’s a credit to Chambersburg eventually finding a way to solve the Red Knights’ nasty defense — whether in the man looks Perez dialed up or a stretched halfcourt 1-3-1 with Starks out front.

In addition to limiting the Trojans to 12 first-half points on 3-for-12 shooting from the floor, the Red Knights also disrupted Chambersburg’s flow significantly and caused the Mid-Penn Conference entry to commit 16 of its 21 turnovers in the opening 16 minutes

“We know with the skill they have and the size they have inside, we know we wanted to dominate 75 to 80 feet of the floor,” Perez said. “It was going to be very difficult to handle them close to the basket.

“We just wanted to make sure that we denied it and pushed them out and make sure we denied their post entries. And the way they scored at the end, I was confident because that’s [usually] not how they score,” Perez added. “I knew we were doing things the way we do it, so I was comfortable we were in our comfort zone and they were not. I knew their run was going to come and we were prepared for it.”

“Our game plan was to be aggressive the whole time, because they’re good,” Lopez recalled. “So being aggressive was key. Being aggressive and [getting after them] was what it was.

“Being strong.”

Lopez really had to be strong, as he spent much of the game locked up in a duel with the remarkably agile 6-6, 280-pound Torres in the low blocks. Torres even canned an early trey.

“Coach said staying in front of them was going to be key,” Lopez said. “They were pretty big.”

Although Chambersburg rallied in the latter portions of the third quarter to get its deficit below 10 points, Reading’s defensive intensity didn’t waver one bit — even though Shreffler’s Trojans connected on 50 percent of their second-half looks (11-for-22).

“It took us a little while to get adjusted to their physicality,” Shreffler admitted. “I thought their guards were really physical and made us push our offense out much further than we’ll particularly run and execute our offense. In the second half, we did a much better job of settling in to who we are and what allows us to be successful. Once we started doing that, some good things started happening for us. If we’d been able to not wait until halftime to get that going for us it may have been a different story.”

However, that wasn’t the case.

Yet long before Lopez made his significant impact, Butler was strong early as his Red Knights teammates located their footing. He also canned a tear drop from the edge of the paint at the end of the third after a slick baseline drive that kept Reading’s momentum intact heading to the fourth.

Butler finished with four assists, his last coming on his slick dish to Lopez.

Yet it was Lopez who came up big down the stretch, as he polished off a late layup with no one around him and then went to the foul line a few seconds later with a chance to open things back up.

“As you know, basketball has a lot of ups and downs,” Lopez added. “We just had to finish that game. Get on that free-throw line and knock down our free throws.”

Mission accomplished — on a number of levels.

And when the Red Knights were beginning to clear out of their Giant Center locker room and board the bus for the ride back home, Lopez was still flashing his gold medal prominently.

“Feels great,” Lopez gushed. “Feels great that we were able to compete in and win it.”

“They really deserve this,” Perez added. “I’m proud of them.”


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