Wyoming Area forward Luke Kopetchny drives close to the basket as Tunkhannock’s Bode Lukasavage defends in the first quarter.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Luke Kopetchny drives his way between Tunkhannock’s Caden Gregory (left) and Caden Newswanger in the second quarter of the Class 4A opening round of the District 2 playoffs Tuesday.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area guard Mitchell Rusinchak works his way to the basket as Tunkhannock’s Andrew Lupinski defends in the second quarter.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area forward Luke Kopetchny gets blocked by Tunkhannock’s Andrew Lupinski in the first quarter.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area forward Drew Keating goes up for points as Tunkhannock’s Andrew Lupinski defends in the first quarter.
Fred Adams | For Sunday Dispatch
The Wyoming Area boys basketball team finds itself in a familiar position.
The Warriors (21-4) have one shot to regroup to try to extend their season into the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 4A state tournament.
It is a challenge Wyoming Area mastered just a year ago.
The Warriors won their first divisional title since 1971 last season, but lost a two-point game to rival Pittston Area in the regular-season finale then fell to the Division 1 runner-up in the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament. A District 2 Class 4A quarterfinal victory was followed by a third loss in four games when the team was roughed up by Scranton Prep.
Apparently down and out, the Warriors came up with one of their finest efforts to date four days later, rallying from 10 down after a quarter to beat Dallas for third place and a spot in the state tournament for the first time since 2006.
Wyoming Area will get a chance for a repeat performance Tuesday night when it hosts Valley View for third place in the only District 2 tournament that sends a semifinal loser on into state play.
“Flush (Friday) night and prepare for Tuesday, that’s all that we can do,” Wyoming Area coach Anthony Macario said Saturday morning.
Perhaps while looking at a little recent history.
The WVC Division 2 champions pulled that off a year ago after losing three of their previous four games and having an even tougher outing at Scranton Prep in the semifinals. Then, they trailed 24-4 after one quarter in a 66-32 loss, but beat Dallas 69-61.
“If there is a good thing, it would be exactly that, we were in this situation last year and we were able to bounce back,” Macario said. “Hopefully, we’re going to be able to do the same thing Tuesday night.”
Scranton Prep 73, Wyoming Area 47
SCRANTON — Luke Kopetchny poured in 35 points, but he was never able to pull Wyoming Area close after Scranton Prep scored the game’s first eight points and followed it up with the last 14 of the first quarter on the way to Friday night’s victory.
Kopetchny scored 33 points over the final three quarters, but that was after the Cavaliers had raced to a 22-4 lead.
“When you play a team the caliber of Scranton Prep, there’s no way you can have the start that we did and expect to come back in the game,” Warriors coach Anthony Macario said. “As a team, we didn’t do enough and when you play someone of that caliber, they make you pay.”
Wyoming Area crept back within 36-24 early in the third quarter.
Kopetchny scored 14 points in the second quarter and did all the scoring in an 8-1 run over the final 42 seconds of the first half and first 1:28 of the second half.
Pittston resident Brody Martin triggered a quick, eight-point streak that allowed the Cavaliers to break away for good. Packy Doherty followed Martin’s 3-pointer with one of his own, then completed a fastbreak with a slick, left-handed, behind-the-back bounce pass for a Chicky Skoff layup.
Doherty hit five 3-pointers while leading Scranton Prep with 30 points.
Charlie Skoff came off the bench to add 13 points and five offensive rebounds. Martin had 11 points and had six rebounds to share the team lead with Charlie Skoff and Max McGrath.
The Cavaliers grabbed the game’s first five rebounds and controlled that part of the game 37-26 despite a game-high nine rebounds by Wyoming Area’s Drew Keating.
“I was disappointed with that,” Macario said. “In a lot of ways, they outworked us on the glass.
“I thought we could have a little advantage inside, but that’s where you have to give Scranton Prep credit and our guys need to be better.”
Kopetchny also had seven rebounds and assisted on three of the five baskets he did not score. Keating had seven points, but the rest of the Warriors managed just five total.
Wyoming Area 58, Tunkhannock 49
EXETER — A comfortable Wyoming Area lead for most of the night became decidedly uncomfortable down the stretch in Tuesday night’s District 2 playoff opener.
The Warriors didn’t make it easy on themselves, but they managed to slow down Tunkhannock enough for the win.
Luke Kopetchny had 27 points and 12 rebounds, and Wyoming Area held off the streaky Tigers in the Class 4A district quarterfinals.
The Warriors led by 18 entering the final quarter, but that lead shrunk to a little as six with three minutes to play.
Tunkhannock’s press forced some turnovers and its 3-point shooting made a serious dent into Wyoming Area’s lead.
“We were playing a little bit too fast,” Wyoming Area coach Anthony Macario said. “We just needed to settle down, handle the pressure a little bit better, get the ball to the right spots on the floor and really defend better.”
The Tigers had a chance to cut the lead down even further with the score 54-48, but Wyoming Area came up with the answer.
After a stop on the defensive end, the Warriors got out in transition to set up Bruno Pizzano with a layup.
Next possession, same thing: a stop on defense led to an easy bucket on the other end, this time from Kopetchny to make it a 10-point game and ice things.
Kopetchny used his size and strength to work inside seemingly at will, doing almost all of his scoring at the rim to help build Wyoming Area’s lead to a point where it could withstand the late run from Tunkhannock.
“I saw gaps that I could penetrate on the defense, to see what I could get there,” Kopetchny said. “The paint was really successful for us tonight, we got a lot of inside buckets.”
The Warriors used a 13-0 run in the second quarter to establish their lead in the double digits, with Kopetchny and Drew Keating doing the bulk of the scoring.
Keating finished with 12 first-half points before an injury kept him out for much of the second half.
With Keating out, the Warriors got an offensive boost from Pizzano and two Mitchell Rusinchak 3-pointers.
“We need it, everyone knows that Luke is our main guy and they’re going to key on him defensively,” Macario said. “For us to keep going, we need to have other guys step up and hit big shots when we need them.”
Bode Lukasavage and Elijah Faux had 14 points each to lead Tunkhannock.
