City of Basketball Love

Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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Aris Rodriguez knew it was his night after seeing his first shot go through the hoop. At the top of the key Rodriguez drove right, getting cut off by his defender. He saw his man shift his weight one way before changing directions, pulling the ball between his legs creating separation. Rodriguez set himself before draining a three. 

Rodriguez’ three-pointer was his first of five triples in Reading’s 65-54 win over West Catholic (1-2). The senior caught fire, scoring a game high 24 points, going 9-for-13 from the field and 5-for-7 from three. Rodriguez provides the Knights (4-0) with another scoring option alongside Ruben Rodriguez (no relation) and Myles Grey.

The senior saw limited time in his first two seasons with the Knights, coming off the bench as a role player and spot up shooter. This season has been different, with Aris shouldering more of an offensive load, creating for himself more. He’s excelled so far, showcasing his skills, and scoring ability. Aris knew his time would come eventually, all he needed was patience.

 “I just had to keep my head down and work hard,” Aris said. “Having people in my ear reassuring me was great because it prepared me for days like today.”

“I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the season that he’s going to be the player that changes the whole game,” Ruben Rodriguez said. “He can take over the whole game if you let him get hot.”

Ruben Rodriguez, a  Rider commit, had a solid outing as well, finishing with 18 points, knocking down two threes. The senior slashed through the lane, finishing through contact on multiple occasions, coming in with timely buckets in the second half.

Aris and Ruben along with the other Reading seniors like Grey have played together since the second grade. Grey had a quiet seven points, but was a pest on defense, guarding West Catholic point guard Budd Clark. 

Over the years, they’ve seen each other grow on the court and in stature, with Aris hitting a growth spurt during the pandemic. The two were around the same height before Aris grew from 5-9 to 6-2, now standing at 6-5. Aris’ height gives him an extra element to his game that was missing throughout the years.

 During his junior season, he made sure to “do the little things” because he knew players like Daniel Alcantara, Joey Chapman and Ruben Rodriguez were the main contributors. Aris learned from being around those players, watching how they carried themselves on and off the court.

 Aris' opening three  gave Reading a 7-0 start, but later in the quarter he rolled his ankle. After going for a loose ball out of bounds, Aris backed up, stepping on the referee’s foot, aggravating an injury he picked up earlier in the year. During the first couple of seconds of Reading’s season against Central York, Rodrigues twisted his ankle. Despite the injury, the senior hasn’t missed any gametime, showing his toughness by coming back into the game on Saturday.

 “For him it’s not just the toughness he’s shown on the court, it’s the maturity he’s shown off the court to prepare his body for this and to continue to play at a high level,” Reading head coach Rick Perez said.“I’m proud of him, he’s shown extreme maturity in prepping his body for these moments and continuing to be there for his team.”

Along with his ankle, Aris caught a stray elbow during the second half opening a cut on his lip. Once the blood was cleaned up, he was right back into the game, knocking down big shots for his team.

A tightly contested first half had Reading up 25-23 before Aris stepped up, draining back-to-back threes to extend the Knights lead to 10. Throughout the second half, West Catholic tried chipping away at the lead, but the Knights answered whenever the Burrs threatened to make a run. After six straight points from West to make it 50-44, Aris knocked down a three from the corner before taking a charge on the other end.

 “You’re in a boxing match, so you’re going to get punched, but you have to handle those punches,” Perez said. “When you have Ruben and Myles handling the basketball, the senior leadership they provide, they bring a level of poise.”

 Reading’s style of causing chaos for all 32 minutes while still playing at a high level is what makes them so tough to beat. In the offseason, the Knights work on conditioning non-stop in preparation, pushing the players to a “breaking point” according to Perez.

 “It’s basically track practice. We don’t touch the ball,” Aris said.

 West Catholic has a similar approach to Reading, pressing, and playing aggressive defense, trying to speed their opponents up. Both teams experience the frenetic pace in practice every day, but Reading dealt with the pressure in key moments. West was rushed at times, going too fast as they pressed to get back into the game.

 “Clearly, they had a plan, they executed the plan 10 times better than we executed ours. At the end of the day,” West Catholic head coach Miguel Bocachica said. “It’s not the first time we’ve played Reading during the season or in a showcase event, we already knew the energy that was coming, we had to be better. They were tougher than us, more disciplined than us and it showed.”

Budd Clark led West Catholic with 20 points, but Reading made him work for every bucket, putting several different defenders on him. Temple commit Zion Stanford had 14 and MJ Branker scored 10, but no other West player had more than six points.

The Burrs’ last lead came in the first quarter when they led 12-11, before Reading took control. The Knights were in the driver’s seat for most of the game, preventing West from getting out and running in transition for easy baskets.

“I don’t think anyone can run with us or play like us,” Ruben Rodriguez said. “We got them to play our basketball and you could tell during the game that they were getting tired … not a lot of teams can match our aggressiveness and intensity throughout the game. Even though they’re a great program, you could tell they started folding after a while.”

By Quarter

Reading (4-0):           13  |  12  |  25  | 15 ||  65

West Catholic (1-2):  12  |  11  |  15  |  16  ||  54

Scoring

Reading: A. Rodriguez 24, R. Rodriguez 18, Cruz 12, Grey 7, Burdine 2, Osumanu 2

West Catholic: Clark 20, Stanford 14, Branker 10, Walker 6, Wilbanks-Acqui 4.