Time was running out and fourth-seeded Reading High hadn't been able to pry the lead away from two-time defending champ and top-seeded Wyomissing since early in the second quarter.
The game was tied 38-38 after the Red Knights battled back from two separate nine-point deficits.
Yamilex Rodriguez then made the play that put Santander Arena in a frenzy. The senior guard deked a defender and had one last barrier to scoring: Wyomissing's shot-blocking menace Amaya Stewart.
Rodriguez was cognizant enough to go to a reverse from the other side of the rim to protect from being blocked, spun the ball off the backboard, and watched if fall through the net with about 15 seconds left to lift the Red Knights to a 40-38 victory Thursday over the Spartans in a classic BCIAA girls basketball semifinal.
"I knew that time was running down," Rodriguez said. "I trusted I was going to make the right play whether it was a good pass or shot because of all the work I put in at the gym. Honestly, what was going through my mind was that we needed to win this game and I'm going to do what I have to do to win it."
Reading advances to face Gov. Mifflin, which defeated Wilson 60-56 Thursday, in the Berks Girls League final Friday at 6:00 and prevents Wyomissing from completing only the fourth threepeat in county history.
"When I first walk in to [Santander Arena], it still amazes me," Rodriguez said. "But every time I come in here, I come in here knowing that I have to prove something, because every single year I've been here I came up short. So I come in here with a chip on my shoulder."
Wyomissing had knocked Reading out of the past two county playoffs, including in the championship in 2023. The Red Knights finally got the upper hand on the Spartans and Rodriguez, who finished with a team-high 16 points and four assists, now has bragging rights on her best friend Stewart, who had a game-high 20 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks.
"She's honestly one of my closest friends," Rodriguez said of Stewart, who have a friendly free-throw percentage competition going with the prize being a seafood boil courtesy of mutual trainer and AAU coach Nish Edwards. "It's always fun playing against her and it's always tough because I know she's going to give me her best game. It's friendly competition, but we know we're both going to go hard at the end of the day."
Reading High head coach Rashida Suber went deep into her bench with 11 total players receiving playing time. The Red Knights sped up the Spartans, forced turnovers and bad shots, and turned them into quick transition offense.
"The girls really bought into the game plan," Suber said. "We just tried to make it hard for Amaya, pressured their guards. It feels great, we couldn't go down three times [in a row to Wyomissing in the county playoffs]. Everybody stepped up to their part in the game plan."
"I think their relentless pressure got to us," Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders said. "The shots we were making earlier in the game we didn't make toward the end. Suber did a great job with those kids running around, flying around. We got up on them and they just kept coming and coming and coming. I'm very happy for [Suber], no doubt."
The chaotic scenario that led to Rodriguez's game-winning bucket is a microcosm of how the Red Knights (16-8) wore down the Spartans (20-4) in a game that turned into a frenetic pace, a tempo in which Reading thrives.
A mass scramble for a rebound followed a Wyomissing miss with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game. Reading High freshman guard Xiani Beatty secured it after diving to the floor and carefully passed to teammate Elyssa Spring before the Spartans could tie her up and force a jump ball.
Spring heaved a pass down the court intended for Rodriguez that bounced off Stewart and into the hands of Reading's Kailani Ocasio, who quickly swung it to Rodriguez on the left wing before she made the crafty game-winning reverse.
Beatty, the daughter of Reading High and Alvernia Hall of Famer Tanisha Giddens Beatty, has made a major difference in her first year of varsity ball. The precocious guard had an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double in her first game under the bright lights of Santander Arena.
"I was a little nervous, but I knew we had to jump on them right out of the gate," Beatty said. "I had to settle in pretty fast. Once the first play happened, I was there. It was game time."
Beatty gave the Red Knights their only leads of the first two quarters with a driving layup to make it 6-4 with about 1:00 left in the first quarter and a jumper off Rodriguez's assist to make it 8-7 with 6:17 left before halftime.
Stewart responded with eight of Wyomissing's points during a 10-0 run that gave the Spartans their first nine-point lead at 17-8.
The run was finally ended with JilliAnn Laws' layup off another Rodriguez assist. Back-to-back coast-to-coast finishes by Rodriguez and Beatty cut the lead to 17-14 at halftime.
Beatty cut the lead to 21-19 after making one of two free throws with 5:20 left in the third, but the Spartans withstood Reading's push and Alexis Hardy's and-one with 2:50 remaining capped a 7-0 run for Wyomissing.
The Spartans kept the Red Knights at bay to close the third and led 32-26.
Rodriguez took matters into her own hands to start the fourth, scoring on a steal-and-score and then making a no-look assist to Spring to make it 32-30.
Tamyia Collier banked in a floater with 5:08 left in the game to tie it.
Stewart and Beatty exchanged buckets to leave the game tied 34-34 with 4:07 left.
Stewart finished a layup off an assist from Lili Marshall and Hardy converted two free throws to push Wyomissing's lead to four with 1:46 remaining.
Rodriguez scored another contested bucket to cut the lead to 38-36 with 1:35 left and then finished again off a near full-court pass from Beatty to tie the game with 1:07 left.
After Rodriguez's game-winning reverse, Wyomissing had a good look at the rim to tie it but the shot fell short with 0:04 left. Rodriguez secured the rebound and Reading eventually ran the final seconds off after multiple timeouts.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
Reading High | 6 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 40 |
Wyomissing | 7 | 10 | 15 | 6 | 38 |
Red Knights (16-8) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Bradley | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Beatty | 4-13 | 3-4 | 0-1 | 1 | 11 | 11 |
Rodriguez | 8-17 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4 | 1 | 16 |
Laws | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
Velez | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
N. Ortega | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Blijden | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Collier | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Sosa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Spring | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Ocasio | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Totals | 18-50 | 4-8 | 0-5 | 6 | 20/24 | 40 |
Spartans (20-4) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Stewart | 8-15 | 4-6 | 0-1 | 1 | 12 | 20 |
Hardy | 3-10 | 5-9 | 0-3 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
Maggs | 1-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Hyde | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
Marshall | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
Hurleman | 1-4 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
Loeb | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Anders | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals | 14-41 | 10-19 | 0-5 | 8 | 31/36 | 38 |
Turnovers: Reading High 18, Wyomissing 27. Team rebounds: Reading High 4, Wyomissing 5.
Comments