Berks Catholic Raises Curtain On Season In Dominating Fashion As Saints Open District 3-4A Title Defense With Forceful Win Over 6A Cedar Crest In City of Basketball Love Showcase Event
Written by: Andy Herr on December 9, 2023
Without much in the way of debate, it’s one of the worst kept secrets around Lancaster-Lebanon League basketball circles heading into the season. That of course being that big things are expected from the Cedar Crest Falcons. Hard to really offer much of a great argument that counters that logic seeing as how the Falcons return almost all of their production from last year’s club, a team that was able to find it’s stride late in the year before sauntering off into the postseason. Not just that, but this core of group of Falcons appears to have finally grown up, even if they still at times may be referred to as, “The Baby Falcons,” given how largely this whole cast has been seen receiving quality minutes on the varsity level for years on end now. And through their first two games of the season that took place earlier in the week, it certainly seemed as if Cedar Crest had lived up to its much-ballyhooed hype given their sizable victories over the likes of Governor Mifflin and Conestoga Valley at home inside of the “The Cage” respectively.
But if there was one true litmus test from the Falcons’ first week of the campaign that may best help provide tangible evidence as to just how far Cedar Crest has come within a year, perhaps there was no better tell on things than Friday evening’s matchup against Berks Catholic held at Exeter.
You see, this exact same contest was one held at the same time of the year last season in circumstances that had to feel eerily similar to both the Falcons and Saints collectively. Like last year, Cedar Crest was selected to draw Berks Catholic in a game in the City of Basketball Love Winter Showcase weekend event that took place at Exeter High School. And in that game nearly a year ago down to the day itself, Berks Catholic left quite an impression on the Falcons given how the Saints were able to prevail in a commanding 65-38 final decision before heading off and capturing the eventual District 3-4A title later on in the season.
So, surely this year’s Falcons, eager to prove that last year’s performance in this very same game was not one emblematic of their program at large, would be excited at the prospect of drawing Berks Catholic as a means to prove just how far they have indeed come over the course of 360+ days. And with the Saints seeing their all-time leading scorer, JayJay Jordan, heading out to the door for bigger and brighter things in his future while in college wearing a football uniform ironically enough following his graduation from Berks Catholic this past spring, things would obviously be different in this go ‘round, right? Right? Well, not if Berks Catholic, namely the surnamed duo of McKoy, had anything to say about it.
To suggest that the Saints’ band of brothers McKoy started off the contest hot against Cedar Crest on Friday night would be selling the pair well short. Sure enough, after getting the evening underway with a triple, Josh McKoy would go on to display his litany of talents by then taking his game inside the arc and coming up with a nifty Euro-step move at the tin which did much more than the keep the Falcons at bay in the early going considering the Saints found themselves with possession of the 7-2 advantage with 3:50 left in the opening frame in this their season opener. And if he wasn’t the one doing the scoring for his side, fellow senior classmate Parker Nein took his turn in doing so as the BC combo guard rifled in a trey to make it a 12-4 affair in favor of the black and old gold with a tick over one minute still left in the first. Suffice to say, Berks Catholic had been able to raise quite a few eyebrows after the opening eight minutes by virtue of their 14-6 lead at the end of the frame.
Yet even once into the second, Berks Catholic was able to feel way too comfortable.
Not that they would be found complaining about it of course. Certainly the other half of the McKoy tandem, sophomore guard Kingston McKoy, didn’t have much in the way of beef with it once the pink-shoed sophomore guard decided to pull up from beyond and sink a trifecta in his own right, making it a 19-8 Saints’ lead not even one minute into the new quarter.
Yet to their credit, despite much of the action out on the court not going in their favor by any stretch it felt, Cedar Crest just kept hanging around and hanging around despite the bevy of haymakers Berks Catholic was able to land against them in the opening half.
For that, credit 6’1 senior guard Owen Chernich with a jumper that got his crew back inside of ten at 19-10 with five minutes and change left to play before the half. Later, after playing through their patented dribble/drive offensive set, Jackson Custer was able to reap the benefits with a smooth pullup J of his own off the action, suddenly cutting the Cedar Crest deficit back down to half a dozen, 23-17, with a shade inside of one minute left in the second quarter at that point. And while Cedar Crest would head into the halftime respite while still down, they had to feel fortunate all things considered seeing as how Berks Catholic held what felt like a fairly pedestrian 25-17 lead in a first half they had so clearly owned.
In the second half though, those in attendance were treated a basketball-version to the “Kingston McKoy Show.”
Simply put, if he wasn’t drawing the attention of college coaches heading into the night, the wiry and bouncy 10th grader found with the ball in his hands predominantly for the Saints certainly will be hounded by scouts moving forward as he continued to show off his entire repertoire. Case in point, a hard-earned take to the rack while in traffic to up the Berks Catholic cushion back to double figures, 29-19, before McKoy followed that up with a pullup jumper nearly two minutes later that continued to keep Cedar Crest at arm’s length, 31-21, with 2:45 left to play in the third.
Problem is, Berks Catholic looks all the part of a defending District 3 champ in positions one thru five across the board.
Sure, while McKoy might’ve been the one doing his best work at trying to put a highlight tape together for himself throughout a majority of the third frame, Parker Nein proved that he too cannot be forgotten about as Nein promptly canned a back-breaking triple in the midst of an albeit brief Cedar Crest jaunt with momentum as Nein’s trey helped to send the Saints into the fourth with their lead standing at a dozen, 35-23.
Did we mention yet that Kingston McKoy is a name to remember in Berks County for what feels like years to come? In any regard, Cedar Crest certainly won’t forget him, especially as his hard-earned hoop plus in the harm in the initial stages of the final period not just kept the Saints’ cushion at 37-25, but it also came as a two-point addition to his well-rounded evening as McKoy would go to steal the headlines, largely by virtue of his game-high 21-point performance, by the end of the night.
But from that point onward on Friday in Reiffton, there was no further mystery as to how this version of Berks Catholic/Cedar Crest would eventually shake out.
For specifics, the Saints went to tally the next five points following the aforementioned McKoy bucket at the cup thanks to a dead-eye triple sunk by another Berks Catholic sophomore, Brady Altimar, making it a 42-25 advantage with four minutes still left to go. Shortly thereafter, a pair of bunnies inside chipped in by way of a senior this time, Armanni Dominguez, helped to send those in attendance out the door earlier than perhaps they had planned given the 46-28 Berks Catholic lead with inside of three minutes still to play.
Finally, in perhaps the most apropos way possible seeing as how Berks Catholic had been able to flex its collective muscle and shut Cedar Crest down at every possible turn, a two-handed dunk courtesy of Nein in the waning stages felt like a fitting exclamation mark on the Saints’ opening chapter while in defense of their District 3 crown with an emphatic 54-32 final victory over arguably one of the foremost players expected to compete for the L-L League crown this season.
That said, while you don’t really want to go the hyperbolic route and say that the Falcons’ season is already at any sort of crossroads, it’d be nothing if not fair to suggest that the masses will likely learn quite a bit about this grizzled bunch and how they respond on Saturday following this sound defeat at the hands of Berks Catholic when the Falcons head back to Exeter on Saturday afternoon where they await another big-school name brand, Downingtown West, in the Saturday’s final day of festivities. But even if we don’t know what the eventual outcome of Saturday’s game will exactly pan out, the one thing we can almost set our watch to collectively is that a backed-in and doubted Cedar Crest is always the most dangerous Cedar Crest. And until that ever changes, there’s no reason to ever take the Falcons, particularly these Falcons, for granted.
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