READING HIGH ELIMINATES BENSALEM 63-38

Written by: Bruce Badgley on March 10, 2018

The beauty about PIAA post season basketball is the mystery surrounding the inter sectional opening round games.  Many of these teams and many of these leagues have very few points of reference to judge performances.  So  Saturday afternoon the Bensalem Owls and Reading Red Knights  faced off at the GMIS in an opening round PIAA tourney game.  A nip and tuck first half, was replaced with a Reading High runaway in in the second half.  The Red Knights cruised on to PIAA tourney round two with a 63-38 win over Bensalem.

Reading got solid play from Larry Wingo and Daniel Colter  each with 13 points.  Wesley Butler had all of his 11 points in the second half. James Lieble’s strong inside game and 12 points led Bensalem.

The first quarter was a clash of styles.  Reading was trying to get things up tempo to negate Bensalem’s height advantage.  Bensalem did their best to maximize the inside advantage.  After one Reading was up 11-10.  Reading stepped up the defensive pressure to keep up the tempo.  The constant pressure got Bensalem out of offensive rhythm and opened up the passing lanes.  The Red Knights also began to work better on the boards and held a 25-20 lead at the break.

The third quarter was all Reading.  Daniel Colter and Larry Wingo began to work a nice inside and outside game on offense.  Coupled with Bensalem going absolutely cold from the field The Red Knights began to pull away and led 41-24 after three.   With three minutes left Reading had just removed all doubt by forging a 55-32 lead. It was keep away and free throw time after that  The Red Knights just ran away and hid for a 63-38 win.  The Red Knights move on in the tourney to face C.B. West.

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