SCRANTON – Pittston Area faced a series of playoff opponents unlike anything any team had ever gone against in the history of District 2 basketball tournament.
The Patriots completed their unprecedented run of taking on three consecutive regular-season division champions by winning two of the games and going to overtime in the other.
Pittston Area bounced back from the overtime loss to bring an end to the 13-year state tournament qualifying streak by Abington Heights with a 37-35 victory Tuesday night at the Lackawanna College Student Union Center.
“I can’t ask for anything more than the fight and determination they showed all the way through,” said Al Semenza, who is in his first year coaching Pittston Area and will now take a fourth school to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.
The second win, in Tuesday’s Class 5A third-place game, gave the Patriots the district’s final spot in the state tournament, sending them into Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association play for the first time since 2014 and just the second since 2002.
The Patriots came back strong from an overtime loss to top-seed and eventual champion Wallenpaupack four days earlier.
Pittston Area held Abington Heights scoring leader Corey Perkins, a starter on the 2018 state championship team, scoreless.
“Defense has been our calling card all season,” Semenza said. “It’s been our defense that got us here.”
Sophomore guard J.J. Walsh made sure there was enough offense as well, hitting four 3-pointers while scoring a game-high 16 points.
“He made big shots,” Semenza said. “I tell him, ‘I don’t care if your last shot hit the ceiling. If you’re open, shoot the three’.”
He did.
Abington Heights ran off its best streak of the game, 10 straight points for its biggest lead, 20-16, by holding Pittston Area scoreless for more than six minutes to begin the second quarter.
That’s when Walsh put up two straight 23-footers and made them both for the last six points of the half and a 22-20 lead.
Walsh coolly drilled consecutive 23-footers to send the Patriots into the locker room at halftime up, 22-20.
“They were going in, so I kept looking for my shots,” Walsh said.
The Patriots never trailed again, but Abington Heights did not go away easily.
Pittston Area clung to a 31-30 lead as neither team scored for the last 1:20 of the third quarter and the first 5:36 of the fourth quarter.
Walsh connected from the left wing for three more and the Patriots held on from there with the help of two of his free throws.
Logan Booth scored 11 points for Pittston Area while Brennan Higgins had eight points and seven assists. Each also grabbed five rebounds to help the Patriots to a 23-20 rebounding edge.
Harry Johnson led Abington Heights with 18 points despite battling foul trouble.
The Comets had one last possession with 8.5 seconds left, but Pittston Area forced Perkins into a rushed, off-balance, 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Pittston Area, which has never won a state tournament game, takes a 17-9 record into the tournament.
The Patriots will travel to the Philadelphia suburbs to face the third-place team from District 1, either Penncrest or West Chester Rustin. The site and time will be announced early Sunday.
