YATESVILLE — Pittston Area had a breakout offensively Friday night, scoring the most points in a game all season.
One problem — Wyoming Valley West did the same thing.
The Spartans jumped to a 17-point halftime lead and withstood several Pittston Area rally attempts for a 77-69 victory in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball game.
Valley West improved to 2-3 in the division and 5-6 overall. Aaron Austin finished with a team-high 20 points in his second game back since missing a few contests with an illness. Draig Ruff added 16, with 12 coming in the fourth quarter.
“Aaron Austin is back after a sickness, and now he’s back and he gave us a boost,” said Valley West coach Rich Jones, whose team cracked the 70-point barrier for the first time in 15 games dating back to last season. “Now Sean Judge is out with a sickness, the flu, but we’ll get him back Tuesday. I liked how our defense pressured them tonight.”
The bench also played a critical role down the stretch as starters Amistad Hackett and Savion Saunders fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
Pittston Area dropped to 1-3 in the division and 4-6 overall. Alex McAndrew had 25, sparking the Patriots in the second half after a lethargic performance on the offensive end in the first two quarters.
The Patriots hadn’t played since last Friday as their game with Hazleton Area was postponed Tuesday due to inclement weather. The off-time certainly wasn’t good for an offense averaging 42 points over the last three games and it showed in the first quarter.
Pittston Area shot 3 of 12 from the field in the first eight minutes, while Valley West scorched the net with an 8 of 11 performance. The result was a 19-8 lead that swelled to 36-19 at halftime.
The Pittston Area’s offense, though, opened the third strongly with Chris Klein scoring on a rebound and McAndrew nailing a 3-pointer from the right wing to start the period. A couple 3-pointers by Naseem Guillaume in the fourth moved the Patriots within 68-62 at the 2:17 mark. They couldn’t get any closer.
“A sense of urgency,” Pittston Area coach Alan Keisinger said of the 50-point second half. “We came out flat and have been struggling a little bit. We lost a close game to Crestwood, won a tight game with Coughlin and then Dallas put one on us.
“The confidence at the start of the game was down a little bit. We haven’t played in a week. It would have helped if we played Hazleton just to know what it feels like to be in a game still.”
The fourth quarter didn’t resemble a game, it was a free-throw shooting display with both teams in the double bonus. They combined for 42 free throws in the period, with some actual on-court action sprinkled in sporadically.
Hazleton Area 69,
Dallas 48
Jeffrey Planutis led four Cougars in double figures with 22 points, followed by Josh Samec, Nolan Genasevich and Da’mir Faison, who all finished with 10.
The Mountaineers got 15 points from Jay Bittner and 10 from Joe Parsons.
Crestwood 54,
Coughlin 35
Lance Blass turned in a 19-point performance as Kyle Gegaris added 11 in the Comets’ win. Crestwood hit seven threes from four different players.
Melvin Robinson led the Crusaders with 12 points.
Wyo. Val. West 77, Pittston Area 69
WVW (77) — Noah Frace 4 3-5 13, Savion Saunders 2 0-0 4, Aaron Austin 7 2-3 20, Draig Ruff 5 6-11 16, Amistad Hackett 3 5-7 11, Montel Jordan 2 3-9 8, Davis Weaver 1 1-2 3, Cortes Adams 1 0-0 2, Tyrek Widbee 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 20-37 77.
PITTSTON AREA (69) — Chris Klein 1 4-4 6, Alex McAndrew 9 6-9 25, Matt McGlynn 2 0-0 6, Patrick Mitchell 5 3-5 13, Keemar Woodruff 1 3-8 5, Mike Mazurkivich 0 3-8 3, Naseem Guillaume 2 5-5 11, Brennan Higgins 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 24-38 69.
WVW`19`17`18`23`—`77
Pittston Area`8`11`21`29`—`69
Three-point goals — WVW 7 (Frace 2, Austin 4, Jordan). PA 5 (McAndrew, McGlynn 2, Guillaume 2).
Hazleton Area 69, Dallas 48
DALLAS (48) — Collin Pertl 1 0-0 2, Alex Charlton 2 0-0 6, Nick Kocher 1 0-0 2, Joe Parsons 5 0-2 10, Jay Bittner 6 3-4 15, Ethan Szczencinski 1 0-0 2, Ben O’Connell 0 0-0 0, Steven Finarelli 0 0-0 0, Matt Mathers 0 0-0 0, Ben Donahue 3 0-0 7, Andrew Kovalick 1 0-0 2, Brody Strickland 0 0-0 0, Michael Farrell 4 0-0 2. Totals 21 3-6 48.
HAZLETON AREA (69) — Josh Samec 3 3-3 10, Michael Cusatis 3 0-0 6, Sparky Wolk 0 0-0 0, Aaron Kellmer 1 0-0 3, Joe Grula 1 3-4 5, Nolan Genasevich 4 2-3 10, Scott Shamany 0 0-0 0, Isaac Perez 1 1-2 3, Jeffrey Planutis 8 3-5 22, Da’Mir Faison 2 5-7 10, Nathan Begg 0 0-2 0, Frank Mussoline 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 17-26 69.
Dallas`9`10`18`11 — 48
Hazleton`24`15`10`20 — 69
Three-point goals — DAL 3 (Charlton 2, Donahue); HAZ 6 (Planutis 3, Samec, Kellmer, Faison)
Crestwood 54, Coughlin 35
COUGHLIN (35) — Thomas Davis 1 0-0 3, Melvin Robinson 6 0-3 12, Charles Cobbs 3 1-1 9, Marco Deluca 1 2-3 4, Aaron Bennett 0 1-2 1, Dylan Thomas 0 0-0 0, Anthony Hinkle 0 0-0 0, Nyseem Johnson 0 0-0 0, Idris Hollis 0 0-0 0, Tony Egidio 0 0-0 0, Julius Morris 3 0-0 6. Totals 14 4-9 35.
CRESTWOOD (54) — Kyle Gegaris 3 3-4 11, Lance Blass 8 1-1 19, Kevin Klusewitz 2 0-0 5, Kyle Richards 0 2-2 2, Noah Jackson 3 3-5 9, Sean Murphy 2 0-0 6, Camden Boris 1 0-0 2, Nick Andrews 0 0-0 0, Mike Ayala 0 0-0 0, Mike Kozelsky 0 0-0 0, Evan Knapp 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 9-12 54.
Coughlin`11`9`13`2 — 35
Crestwood`16`9`14`15 — 54
Three-point goals — COU 3 (Cobbs 2, Davis); CRE 7 (Gegaris 2, Blass 2, Murphy 2, Klusewitz)
