After 11 days since their last game due to All-Star festivities, the Reading Rebels looked a bit sluggish Thursday night.
However, a decisive run in the fourth quarter led to the Rebels’ seventh consecutive win, this one 98-79 over the Virginia Valley Vipers in a The Basketball League game at Alvernia’s Jack McCloskey Court.
The Rebels (8-2) led 70-63 after three quarters before going on a 17-1 run to put it on ice.
“Just that defensive intensity,” Reading coach Joe Linderman said on what flipped the switch in the fourth. “We couldn’t find a lineup that was clicking for the first three quarters. I told them in the fourth quarter, ‘We need to get stops, need to play defense’ and that’s what we did. We found a group of five. Our defense turns to offense and that’s our mentality.”
The Vipers (3-8) led by as many as six points in the first half and stayed in it through three quarters.
The Rebels would not get their first lead until 3:19 remained in the first quarter when Aquille Carr converted a three-point play to make it 13-12.
In the second quarter, both teams were able to turn up the scoring, but neither could jump to a huge lead.
Nine Rebels scored in the frame, with Carr and Emmanuel Egbuta each getting four points.
Coming out of halftime, the score was tied 40-40.
“I don’t know what it was; it probably was the little break we had,” Egbuta said on why the Rebels started slow. “The second half we knew we had to lock in on defense and turn up that intensity a little bit. That’s what we did and came out strong.”
Egbuta scored nine of his game-high 17 points in the third to help the Rebels take a seven-point lead into the fourth.
That’s when the Rebels looked like their usual selves, going on the big run.
Egbuta would have two highlight plays to get the energy going.
Early in the run, the Rebels got a steal that Egbuta turned into had an explosive dunk.
Two possessions later, Ronald Scott threw an alley-oop to Egbuta, who reverse dunked it through.
The Rebels jumped to a 23-point lead with six minutes remaining.
The Vipers looked defeated as they had no answer on either end of the court.
“It feels good, but we’re not done yet,” Egbuta said. “We’re taking it day by day, game by game, so that’s all that matters. This was a good win, everybody is locked in and ready to go.”
Egbuta also had eight rebounds. Richard McCalop had 16 points and 13 rebounds.
For the Vipers, Rze Culbreath had a team-high 16 points and nine rebounds.
Reading will take on the Syracuse Stallions at Liverpool High School in New York Friday night looking to remain hot.
“Syracuse is one of the best teams, if not the best team, in our league,” Linderman said. “They have some really talented guys. It’s going to be a tough game but if our guys can go up there and just lock-in, and play as a team then we can beat them.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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