City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HERSHEY — As the horn finally brought Saturday’s District 3 Class AAAA championship game to a conclusion — and the victors would soon be hoisting a trophy — one emotion kept spinning through Rick Perez’s mind and body.

A timely exhale also helped.

“Peace. Peace. Peace,” Perez said. “Just a moment of peace. Just a brief moment of closure. We’ve worked very hard. I spoke to [former Reading] Coach [Richard] Reyes last night and he said you don’t get here without paying your dues.

“We’ve given Reading our souls and we’ll continue to do that.”

While those collective souls may have been awarded to the folks at home some time ago, but Perez and his talented group of Red Knights also gave their basketball-crazy city something else to celebrate early Saturday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Try District 3 title No. 20.

And it was a 65-54 triumph over a gutsy Central York side that made a valiant second-half comeback that had “The R” rollicking in the Giant Center hallways for quite some time after gold medals and the trophy landed in their hands.

Lonnie Walker netted 25 points — 16 in an oft-spectacular second half — as Perez’s Knights (25-3) tucked their 20th consecutive victory into Reading’s well-traveled set of duffel bags and headed for Berks County in a memorable frame of mind.

“It was like a dream coming into reality,” Walker said of the 3-AAAA title.

“I just thank God that we made it this far.”

Khary Mauras added 17 points and big man Oenis Medina popped a double-double (10 points/11 rebounds) for a Red Knights side that next Saturday will open the PIAA Class AAAA tournament against Hatboro-Horsham.

“These guys deserve it, they deserve it,” Perez said after stepping back into the hallway. “They are the epitome of family. We didn’t play our best game today, but I think we played THE game. They weren’t going to let it go.”

Kevin Schieler’s tough-minded Panthers also are headed to states next weekend, opening the 32-team event against Central Bucks West.

Nathan Markey (19), Onterio Edmonds (14) and Jared Wagner (11) all cracked double digits for Central York (23-4) — Wagner also snared 11 rebounds — which trailed 29-16 at the break yet were down one (38-37) after Wagner’s stickback.

And that was with some 90 seconds to play in the third quarter.

“They’re the quickest, longest, most athletic team we’ve seen this year and I just don’t think we were ready for them in the first half,” Schieler admitted. “To come out in the second half and cut it to one point like that [was outstanding].”

“Basically, we were just telling each other to calm down,” Medina said.

“We knew we could guard them, so let’s just do it.”

Game on.

“We just got too comfortable, at the offensive and defensive ends,” Walker added. “We started off [the second half] too slow and they started off quick. They had like eight points in a minute or two. It was like a 9-2 run.

“They just played their game,” Walker continued, referring to Central’s early second-half spurt that was highlighted by two Markey treys and Wagner’s three-point play.

“We were a little too cocky and that’s one thing that our team isn’t.”

At least that’s what many of the 5,000-plus anxious spectators tucked inside Giant Center believed at that particular moment. Only Reading wasn’t about to give back even the slightest of leads, even if Central had adapted to the Knights’ pressure.

Medina sank the front end of a two-shot look with 1:20 to go to increase Reading’s advantage slightly. And still holding the lead when they regained possession with 30 seconds or so to go in the third, the Red Knights held on looking for a quality shot.

They got one just before the horn when Walker connected from deep — Mauras’ delivery set up the bucket — to make it 42-37.

“They knew they were in a ballgame, but they knew it was their ballgame,” Perez said. “I think they just put the exclamation point on it, because in the fourth quarter we really turned it up as you saw."

Walker struck again and again in the opening moments of the final stanza, completing a conventional three-point play after swiping an inbounds pass. Another 3-pointer arrived moments later for the 6-5 junior as Reading’s lead bulged to 11.

“I didn’t feel I had to take over,” Walker revealed. “I just felt confident in my shots and my teammates believed in me. Once I notice that my teammates believe in me and they keep on giving me the ball and notice I’m the hot man, I’m just gonna do what I have to do to win. I don’t accept losing. I don’t like losing.”

“Lonnie’s an amazing player,” Medina said.

“I’m happy that he’s on my team and not on the other.”

“There’s a reason he’s the No. 1 player in the state,” Schieler offered. “There were several times when I thought we did a nice job defensively, but he still somehow gets a shot off — whether it be him coming to that jump stop where he creates all that space or knocking down step-back jumpers.

“There’s not much we can do if he’s hitting shots like that.”

Central wasn’t about to hand deliver the championship trophy, however, as Markey’s deep look sliced the Panthers’ deficit to four (56-52) with just over four minutes to go. However, Schieler’s bunch never was able to draw closer.

Still down by five (59-54) with just over a minute showing, Central watched its hopes dissipate as Damon Stern, Mauras and Medina dug in at the line and added to the lead by knocking down both ends of 1-and-1s to close things out.

No. 20 belonged to the Red Knights and their rabid partisans.

Central had made its second-half run — Schieler’s Panthers did not turn the ball over in the third quarter yet finished with 16 miscues — but Reading was able to side-step the York Countians and wrap up yet another title.

Walker did what Walker does.

Mauras banked 10 second-half points, including eight in the fourth quarter when Central wasn’t backing down and the result remained undetermined.

And Medina was closing out his double-double — and Reading’s latest success — by burying two freebies with 27.5 seconds to play. The largest youngster on the floor at 6-8 and 250 pounds, his sheer size gave a smaller Central side all sorts of issues.

“My man was eating,” Stern said.

“He does things that most of us don’t do,” Walker said. “That’s what makes us a better team. We have role players, we have offensive threats, we have defensive threats and we all turn into one team. Makes us a great team.

“I’m glad he played like that. We needed him in this game.”

“Coming into the game, I don’t really worry about points as much as I do about rebounds,” Medina said. “My teammates have faith in me.

“They know that I’m gonna play as hard as I can, but it is great to have a double-double in the district championship game.”

Not to mention to be able to leave for home with a gold medal.

And those gold medals hanging from Reading necks were still flashing prominently as the Red Knights celebrated among themselves outside their locker room.

So were plenty of grins.

“Amazing,” Medina said. “Obviously, no team was gonna slack off tonight and fortunately we came out with the W.”

“You put all those guys in this situation and they’re not gonna back down,” Perez said. “We’ve worked too hard. … It was an overall family effort.”

No wonder Perez was at peace.

His players, too.