Berks Catholic earns hard-fought win against Wilson in boys basketball

Jan. 20—The fans at Wolf Gymnasium were treated to a playoff-like atmosphere as Berks Catholic defeated Wilson 49-44 in a hard-fought Berks Conference Division I-II game Thursday night.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Berks Catholic's Josh McKoy received a pass in the corner from Ryan Koch, who had drawn double coverage while driving into the paint.

With an open look and the crowd roaring behind him, McKoy drained the corner 3-pointer to give the Saints (7-1 Berks II, 14-1) a 45-41 lead and swing the momentum in their favor.

"I see No. 10 (Ofure Odiale) crashing down on Ryan every single time we go to the paint, so I had to hit that shot," said McKoy, who finished with 10 points. "It was meant to be."

The four-point lead was extended to six a few moments later when Joshua's younger brother, Kingston McKoy, made a layup, and Berks Catholic was able to hold the Bulldogs (5-2 Berks I, 12-4) to three points during the final 2:30 to close it out.

Kingston McKoy, a freshmen who had been a defensive force for most of the game, was a key difference-maker, according to Saints coach Snip Esterly.

"The biggest play of the game was Josh hitting the 3-pointer to take us up four; that was huge," Esterly said. "I thought we played much better defense in the second half. Kingston McKoy is one helluva defensive player. I'll tell you what, he can play; and to be only a freshmen, that's scary.

"It's incredible to watch. The young man (Kingston McKoy), I see it every day in practice, is special. And he's a workaholic. And he's really going to improve because he loves the game so much. Him and his brother (Josh) are constantly working."

Josh McKoy, a junior in his first season at Berks Catholic after transferring from Antietam, shared his coach's high praise for his younger brother and added that the two bring out the best in each other.

"That's my little brother; I love him to death, man," Josh McKoy said. "And I feel like the sky's the limit for him too. He's a freshman. He can do a lot. He can stretch the floor, he can dribble. He plays excellent defense; probably one of the best defenders on the team, hands down.

"He knows when I'm playing bad and I know when he's playing bad and I know he got my back no matter what."

Berks Catholic's Josiah Jordan and Wilson's Aidan Melograna each scored a game-high 14 points.

Wilson started with the hotter hand by opening the game on a 12-0 run. Jordan scored the first field goal for the Saints with 2:24 to go in the first after going 1-of-2 from the foul line on the previous possession.

The Bulldogs led 19-10 after the first quarter and Melograna had seven points in the first eight minutes.

"I thought we played a good game for the most part," Bulldogs coach Matt Coldren said. "Early in the game, we had success shooting the ball, but a lot of those were after a lot of ball movement and our guys were wide open."

Berks Catholic started to come back in the second quarter by outscoring the Bulldogs 20-13. Jordan scored seven points in the quarter and seven in the third to help lead the come-from-behind efforts.

"It was just a matter of the kids settling down a little bit," Esterly said. "In the beginning we just didn't move the ball well at all. And they came out fired up. You got to credit Wilson, man they came to play."

Wilson scored just five points in the third and had seven in the fourth.

"In the second half, I thought we took some, in my opinion, ill-advised shots," Coldren said. "I thought in the second half we were taking jumpers after one or two passes, which kind of helped Berks Catholic out. They didn't have to guard as long. We had some guys who are taking 3s that we don't really want taking 3s.

"They took the lead on us (40-37) and we came back and took the lead (41-40) by taking it to the rim and attacking them. Then we had five straight trips where we shot 3s and I think that's what did us in."

Koch closed the third quarter with a picturesque fastbreak dunk off an assist from Jordan to give the Saints a 40-37 lead.

The Bulldogs opened the fourth with a basket by Cam Jones to cut it to one.

Wilson's Cleveland Harding then came up with a steal and assisted Melograna on a fastbreak dunk to put the Bulldogs up 41-40.

From there, Berks Catholic went on the decisive 7-0 run, powered by the McKoy brothers and two foul shots by Koch. Koch finished with 10 points and fellow team captain Jack Miller had seven points.

"That's what's so neat about this team, each and every one of them can score," Esterly said. "We don't like guys scoring in the upper 20s. I love balanced scoring and that keeps everybody in the game and into the flow; it's nice.

"We got some seasoned seniors and I think that helps and being on our court helped. They just slowly chipped away and they knew how things were going. We just had to settle down and we were just too much one-on-one."

Harding, who came into the game averaging 10.9 points per game, scored seven.

Jones, who averaged a team-high 12.1 points a year ago and was playing just his fourth game of the season after battling a groin injury, finished with six points.

"I don't think he will be," Coldren said when asked how close Jones was to seeing the same minutes he saw last year. "He's every other day. Like if we did something tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to play. We got to limit his minutes. It's been hard for him coming back. He's been frustrated by it, y ou know, because he wants to play and mentally he's there, but physically he's not.

"The pain in his groin is still there."

With two road games ahead for the Berks II-leading Saints, against Lancaster on Saturday and then against Reading High on Tuesday, McKoy said that there is more success to come from Berks Catholic.

"The sky's the limit," Josh McKoy said. "I think that if we keep on getting better, we're going to be very hard to beat."