A statline of 21 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks is an eye-opener for most high school girls basketball players.
For Amaya Stewart, who tied a school record with 36 points last Thursday against Kutztown, it's another day in the office.
The Albany commit packed 14 of those 21 points into the second half to lead the Spartans past Berks Catholic 37-34 Monday night in a non-league backyard brawl in Wyomissing.
"It's these games that make it so special," Stewart said. "Everybody comes out to support. It's good for the community to have these games."
The game was reminiscent of the last time the schools, which are separated by roughly two miles, faced off in an epic, full-house District 3 Class 4A semifinal two seasons ago.
As a sophomore, Stewart hit the game-winning 3 with four seconds left in that grind-it-out game to lift Wyomissing to a 24-23 victory en route to its first district title. They doubled down and won another district title last year.
The stands were full in Wyomissing Monday to see the encore as both teams again executed effective defensive game plans.
The Spartans (7-1) full-court pressed the Saints (4-4) immediately and put extra attention on guard Madison Langdon, who came in averaging 17.0 points per game and needing 12 to reach 1,000 for her career.
"You want to get the ball out of her hands because she makes them operate," Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders said. "She's their engine."
Berks Catholic neutralized Wyomissing's offense Monday as head coach Bob Birmingham deployed a zone defense, a rarity for Berks girls' all-time winningest coach.
It gave the Spartans trouble to start the game as they couldn't make their outside shots and the Saints led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter.
"You expect them to have you completely scouted and do things to make it absolutely impossible for you to score," Anders said of Berks Catholic. "I was not expecting them to go zone. The last time [Birmingham] played zone was when Devon Merritt was with them."
Merritt, who is Berks Catholic's all-time leading scorer, graduated in 2016 before playing at James Madison.
But the Saints couldn't crack the Spartans' vaunted zone either and Wyomissing started the second quarter on a 6-0 run before BC battled back to tie the game 16-16 at halftime.
The Saints got a boost with the return of Sydney Corado, who was limited or inactive the past two games. The 6-0 forward scored eight of her team-high 13 points in the first half and played solid defense on Stewart, but was relegated to the bench for most of the third quarter with foul trouble.
Daniel Boone transfer Liv Welker (eight points, 10 rebounds) stepped up for the Saints in the third with seven points, but Stewart's 10 in the quarter pushed Wyomissing's lead to 31-25.
Corado's 3 with 5:30 left in the game cut Wyo's lead to 33-31. Langdon hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to one with 4:20 left and Giana Mirenda's steal-and-score gave Berks Catholic the lead with 2:49 remaining.
Stewart then finished inside to give the Spartans the lead back with 1:16 left and Kacey Maggs converted two foul shots after getting a critical steal when BC intentionally fouled her.
Stewart blocked Langdon's half-court heave as time expired to preserve the victory for Wyomissing, which has won six in a row including a victory over 6A Parkland after a loss to 6A Hazleton in its second game of the season.
"We want to go as far as possible this season," said Stewart, who led the Spartans to the PIAA semifinals last season. "That is our plan. We might not have all the factors we did [last year], but we have people who can step up and fill those shoes."
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
Wyomissing | 7 | 9 | 15 | 6 | 37 |
Berks Catholic | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 34 |
Spartans (7-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Stewart | 10-21 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 12 | 21 |
Hardy | 0-11 | 1-6 | 0-4 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
Maggs | 2-8 | 2-3 | 0-5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
Hyde | 2-9 | 0-0 | 2-7 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Marshall | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
Loeb | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Anders | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Totals | 15-55 | 4-11 | 3-22 | 6 | 30/34 | 37 |
Saints (4-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Langdon | 2-14 | 3-4 | 0-8 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
McFadden | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
Welker | 2-5 | 3-4 | 1-2 | 1 | 10 | 8 |
Mirenda | 3-7 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
Corado | 6-10 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0 | 4 | 13 |
K. Linderman | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
E. Linderman | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Cannon | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Totals | 13-45 | 6-9 | 2-15 | 7 | 32/40 | 34 |
Turnovers: Berks Catholic 20, Wyomissing 7. Team rebounds: Berks Catholic 8, Wyomissing 4.
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