Offensive struggles brought an end to the season for both the Wyoming Area and Pittston Area boys basketball teams in their playoff openers.
Wyoming Area, in Class 4A, and Pittston Area, in Class 5A, lost in the District 2 quarterfinals.
Nanticoke 60
Wyoming Area 36
Nanticoke beat Wyoming Area for the second time in seven days and, unlike the three-point victory in the regular-season finale, the Trojans were in control from the start in Wednesday’s game at Wyoming Valley West.
Luke Butczynski scored five of his game-high 15 points and Justin Casey had seven of his 13 in the first quarter when the fourth-seeded Trojans took a 14-3 lead on the fifth-seeded Warriors.
Butczynski made three of his team’s five 3-pointers, including two in the third quarter when Nanticoke stretched the lead from 26-16 to 40-24.
Kyle Musto hit all six of his free throws while coming off the bench to lead Wyoming Area with nine points. Mikey Bonita added eight.
Wyoming Area, which had averaged just 3.3 wins over the previous seven seasons, finished the season 16-7.
Crestwood 44
Pittston Area 31
Pittston Area was unable to repeat past playoff success against Crestwood, including last season’s upset in the District 2 Class 3A quarterfinals.
Kyle Gegaris scored six of his 16 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday when the Comets pulled away from what had been a 27-22 game.
Matt McGlynn scored all of his team-high eight points in the second half for the Patriots. His 3-pointer was the only field goal of the fourth quarter for Pittston Area.
The Comets also limited the Patriots to one field goal in the second quarter to key an 8-5 advantage to take a 20-15 halftime lead.
Chris Klein was 5-for-5 from the line and Naseem Guillaume was 4-for-4 while scoring seven points each for the Patriots.
Pittston Area had knocked higher-seeded Crestwood teams out of the tournament two of the past three years. The Patriots completed the season with a 6-17 record.
