The second verse of the Reading High Holiday Invitational was the same as the first for the Red Knights boys basketball team as strong defense led to a 73-66 win over Cardinal O’Hara in the championship game at the Geigle Thursday night.
After comfortably defeating Bethlehem Liberty 55-46 in the opener on Wednesday, Reading High once again used a dominant defense and capitalized in transition on offense to maintain a comfortable lead over the Lions throughout.
Reading High had four steals in the first half and forced Cardinal O’Hara into six turnovers to establish a 43-26 halftime lead.
Jeremiah Camara, who finished with 10 points, made a 3-pointer that kickstarted an opening 11-2 run for the Red Knights (5-3), who never surrendered the lead.
“Defense helps create our offense,” Reading High coach Francis Camara said. “And when you do a great job defensively, you make teams uncomfortable and they have to work harder to score. We’re just trying to create uncomfortable looks and put guys in positions offensively that they’re not used to being in.”
“That’s the first thing we look at is our defense,” senior center Malik Osumanu said. “Our defense opens up everything for us: our tempo, how fast we play, how we score, and that’s what we focus on.”
Leading the charge while turning defense into offense was senior guard Yadiel Cruz, who scored a career-high 30 points and had six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Cruz led all scorers with 16 at the half and had nine points in the third quarter.
Osumanu, who made the all-tournament team, had 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.
“He (Cruz) brings a lot of energy, scoring, intensity; everything,” Osumanu said. “He did a very good job tonight. Being able to bring all of that really helped us come up with the win.”
“Yadiel is amazing and he is just getting better day by day,” Francis Camara said. “It’s lovely to watch him grow. Yadiel is a gamer. He is a fierce competitor and he’s gonna continue to come out here and fight every day.”
For Cruz, earning the victory was the result of intrinsic motivation to win for his teammate, fellow senior Nick Chapman, who missed Thursday’s game after suffering a concussion-type injury Wednesday night.
“We came to win for Nick Chapman,” Cruz said through teammate Weshly Rosario, who translated. “To win for him feels great.”
Jameel Burton scored a game-high 40 points for Cardinal O’Hara, including 14 in the fourth quarter.
Furthermore, the Lions did not go down without a fight as they outscored the Red Knights — who played conservatively and attempted to burn time down the stretch — 22-12 in the fourth quarter and 42-30 in the second half.
Cardinal O’Hara got as close as 67-60 with 1:49 to go.
“No. 2 (Burton) for them is an amazing player; he hit a lot of tough shots,” Francis Camara said. “They started to play better in the fourth quarter and make some shots and they were bringing down the lead a little bit.
“But those were the shots that they weren’t hitting earlier in the game. Those were contested shots over two or three people. So if it takes a great player to make amazing shots for them to stay in the game, we’ll take that; we’ll take the percentages on that. Defensively, we did a good job. We closed the game out and we made some good plays down the stretch, which was great to see.”
Also for Reading High, Rosario, a sophomore guard, and senior guard Daquan Burgess each had a team-high six assists. Senior guard Nico Sosa had a team-high three steals.
Reading High returns to action in 2024 when the Red Knights host Exeter on Tuesday. Continuing to find its stride, Reading High is staying steadfast on putting in the work to reach larger goals.
“These wins obviously mean something,” Osumanu said. “You just take it one day at a time. We are trying to focus on where we really want to be at the end of the season.”.
Source: Berkshire mont
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