Pittston Area’s Dominic Januzzi (42) drives the lane for a lay up with Mountaineer Darius Wallace (11) attempting to block the shot.
                                 Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch

Pittston Area’s Dominic Januzzi (42) drives the lane for a lay up with Mountaineer Darius Wallace (11) attempting to block the shot.

Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch

<p>Pittston Area’s Ethan Ghannam (14) hits a 10-foot jump shot against Dallas Area on Tuesday, Jan. 4.</p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch</p>

Pittston Area’s Ethan Ghannam (14) hits a 10-foot jump shot against Dallas Area on Tuesday, Jan. 4.

Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch

<p>The Patriots’ JJ Walsh (13) dribbles his way around Dallas Area’s EJ Matushek (22) during a Mountaineer full court press. </p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch</p>

The Patriots’ JJ Walsh (13) dribbles his way around Dallas Area’s EJ Matushek (22) during a Mountaineer full court press.

Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch

YATESVILLE – Pittston Area coach Al Semenza knows he will see the Dallas Mountaineers at least one more time.

The Patriots and Mountaineers appear poised to battle for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball title after Dallas opened the season with a 56-52 victory at Pittston Area Tuesday night.

“They got us tonight, but I’m proud of our guys, we battled,” Semenza said. “I’ll take my guys any day of the week. We fought hard right to the end.

“We’ve got to brush up a few things. We made a couple mistakes that we can’t make down the road, but it’s only the start.”

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Austin Finarelli and Nick Nocito each scored 22 points. They combined for all 30 Dallas points in the second half, but in the case of their production, Semenza was not pointing to too many mistakes there.

Rather he praised the all-star Dallas backcourt combination for how it produced those points.

“We wanted to make sure we found the shooters, which I thought we did,” Semenza said. “ … But, you look at the stats and the end of the night and they scored an awful lot of points.

“They’re clever. You have to give them credit. They create for each other. They see the floor tremendously. They made some big shots and they’re strong. They’re both physical players.”

Finarelli and Nocito produced even with Pittston Area keeping the pace of the game closer to its preference than that of Dallas.

“We didn’t want it up and down,” Semenza said. “We didn’t want it to be in the 60s because they’ve been scoring a lot of points.”

The game was tied three times in the second half, but Dallas never fell behind after halftime.

Finarelli scored 10 points in the third. Nocito had seven each in the third and fourth quarters and Finarelli added six more in the fourth.

“We lean on those two guys,” said Dallas coach Mark Belenski, whose team is regarded as the favorite by opposing coaches in the division. “They make good decisions and good plays.”

Dallas won the only conference game played prior to the New Year. The Mountaineers then won again Friday to reach 3-0 in Division 1 and 5-1 overall.

The Patriots added a win Friday to get to 1-1 and 6-2.

“It’s only the start,” Pittston Area coach Al Semenza said, referring to the game at “Round One”.

J.J. Walsh led a balanced effort that has become typical of the Patriots this season. He had 14 points. Jack locker made three 3-pointers while adding 13 points. Ethan Ghannam and Anthony Cencetti scored 10 each.

That was not enough, however, to overcome the production of Finarelli and Nocito.

Finarelli and Nocito each scored off steals in the first 27 seconds of the second half for a 30-25 lead.

Pittston Area stayed close and had the ball in the final 35 seconds down two.

Nocito stole an entry pass into the past and pushed the ball up floor to Finarelli for a 54-50 lead with 20 seconds left.

Walsh hurried back down the floor and went to the basket to pull the Patriots within two with 12.2 seconds left.

Nocito was fouled less than a second later and made both ends of a one-and-one, then contested the 3-pointer on the other end to put the game away.