It was a playoff-like atmosphere Friday at Leesport as two Berks III rivals met for the second time this season.
After preventing a fourth-quarter comeback, Fleetwood defeated Schuylkill Valley 53-46 to earn its third straight Berks III boys basketball title Friday at Leesport.
“I’ll tell you what, coming in, this is a hostile environment,” Tigers coach Terry Sitler said. “Packed house and not much room to fit. We had to go to hand signals because we knew we couldn’t yell to them. It’s just awesome. We’re back-to-back-to-back division champions now and winning on their court is also nice.”
Fleetwood (9-0, 15-2) led 37-28 going into the fourth quarter as it looked to close out the game, but the Panthers (6-3, 12-5) fought until the end.
Senior Hunter Svoboda, who ended the night with 15 points, scored six straight points in the paint to begin the fourth quarter as Fleetwood had the Berks III title in sight.
“I’ll tell you what, he’s been doing that all year,” Sitler said on Svoboda. “He’s been doing it on the defensive side. He may not block all the shots, but he changes shots and they miss. He’s been our MVP on the defensive end of the floor and the offensive end. With his size, he’s developed some moves.”
For the Panthers, senior Jacob Zimmerman scored four straight following Svoboda’s surge.
With 2:03 remaining in the game, junior Lucas Spotts hit a three-pointer for Schuylkill Valley to cut the deficit to single digits at 48-41.
However, Svoboda answered with a layup with 1:37 left in regulation. He scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers went to the foul line four more times down the stretch and went 3-for-8 to close out the game.
“It’s great,” Fleetwood senior guard Aiden Soumas said. “It’s a great atmosphere tonight. Fans going crazy everywhere but you know, that third division title in a row. We’ve worked hard for this since we were in like fifth or sixth grade. These back-to-back-to-back division titles really mean a lot to us.”
Soumas, who had a game-high 17 points, is now seven points shy of the 1000-point career mark.
The Panthers began to double Soumas in the fourth and he had just one shot attempt, which was a three-pointer that rattled in and then out.
“I’m glad I can get it at home on Monday (against Garden Spot) and that’ll be fun in front of my home crowd,” Soumas said. “I was a ball boy back in third or fourth (grade) for the high school team. It’s always been a dream to be up on one of those banners. It’s going to feel great to get in front of all my family and friends.”
Both teams traded shots in the first to begin the Berks III rivalry as Fleetwood jumped out to a 13-10 lead.
In the second, the Tigers applied defensive pressure and only allowed six points as the Panthers had no answer. Fleetwood’s lead stretched to as many as 11 points. The Tigers led 24-16 at the half.
Schuylkill Valley got some offense going in the third quarter and gained some momentum from the home crowd. Junior Cooper Hohenadel hit a three-pointer at the buzzer while fading away in the left corner to give the Panthers hope at 37-28 heading into the fourth.
“We are right now the best we’ve been all year,” Sitler said on his team going into the final stretch of the season. “Attitude wise, chemistry, all that type of stuff. We were down 20-6 to Antietam (last game). We had a meeting at halftime, we changed… Right now we’re on all cylinders. So, we’re peaking at the right time.”
For Schuylkill Valley, Zimmerman had a team-high 13 points and Spotts had 11.
Source: Berkshire mont