Pittston Area spoiled Crestwood’s effort to open defense of its Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball title when the Patriots held the Comets scoreless for 11 minutes in the middle of Friday night’s game on the way to a 40-28 road victory.
Crestwood held an 18-14 lead midway through the second quarter of its first game back after more than two weeks off.
The Comets did not score again until a minute remained in the third quarter.
Pittston Area ran off 21 straight points in the interim – the last five of the first half and the first 16 of the second half.
The Patriots showed offensive balance while improving to 6-2 overall.
Ethan Ghannam led the way with 12 points.
Dominic Jannuzzi hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter and one in the third on the way to 11 points.
J.J. Walsh added nine points.
Anthony Cencetti scored all eight of his points during the third quarter when he hit a pair of 3-pointers.
The win evened Pittston Area’s record at 1-1 in the challenging start to the WVC schedule, playing preseason favorite Dallas and defending champion Crestwood in succession.
Wyoming Area 51, MMI Prep 27
Wyoming Area evened its overall record at 4-4 while opening WVC Division 2 play with a home-court victory Tuesday.
Dane Schutter scored 21 of his 25 points in the first half of the victory.
Schutter had 10 points in the first quarter when the Warriors took an 18-5 lead. He had 11 more in the second quarter, with the help of three 3-pointers, for Wyoming Area to open the lead to 39-8 at the half.
Wyoming Area gave up just one field goal in each of the first two quarters.
Evan Melberger had all eight of his points in the first half.
Brady Noone had all six of his points during the second quarter. Matt Little also contributed six points.
Pittston Area 66, Lake-Lehman 33
Pittston Area overpowered host Lake-Lehman early in the Dec. 30 non-league game.
The Patriots led 24-9 after one quarter and 49-15 at halftime.
Ethan Ghannam led the way with 14 points while Anthony Cencetti (11), J.J. Walsh (10) and Jack Locker (10) joined him in scoring in double figures.
