WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Wednesday was a special day for the Pittston Area boys basketball team.
The Patriots visited Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza for District 2’s press conference in anticipation of their first arena appearance in a district championship game. Then, they returned to their own gym for what coach Al Semenza described as their best practice of the season.
Carrying that excitement right into the weekend, the Patriots returned to the arena Friday night and turned in a memorable performance while pummeling North Pocono, 59-26, for the Class 5A championship.
“That’s one of the better performances I’ve seen in a district championship game out of a team in a while,” Semenza said. “I thought we were really good.”
Semenza could see it coming more than 48 hours earlier.
“Wednesday night, we just had a tremendous practice,” Semenza said. “We shot the ball tremendous at our place.
“We were shooting unbelievable. We did everything right. I just sat there saying, ‘oh my God are we good tonight’. So, Thursday I cut practice to an hour, 15.
“I thought the only thing I can do is screw them up at this point, so we got in and out of there as fast as we could and hoped we could continue it.”
By the time Friday night arrived, it was a confident Pittston Area team that took the arena floor to claim just the second district title in school history, ending a 44-year wait.
“We were just relaxed and played unbelievable,” Semenza said.
Pittston Area was already up 26-18 before scoring the first 13 points of a second half in which it made 14 of its first 16 shots.
The Patriots followed up a 24-5 third quarter by scoring on the first possession of the fourth quarter to send the game into the Mercy Rule with a 52-22 lead with 7:45 left.
Jack Locker led the way, making five 3-pointers while scoring 20 points, 14 of which came in the second half.
“This is the best feeling I ever felt in my life,” Locker said. “These are my best friends since I was 12 years old.
“We played together through the whole time. I love these guys; they’re my brothers.”
The same teams had met in the Conference Challenge and Lackawanna College in December and the game went down to the final seconds before Pittston Area won, 36-33.
This time around, the entire fourth quarter was an extended celebration of an accomplishment that had already been locked up with three quarters of superb basketball.
North Pocono’s only leads were at 2-0 and 4-3.
Ethan Ghannam scored the go-ahead basket and four of the points in an eight-point streak to an early, 11-4 lead.
It was the first of many surges by the Patriots.
Following the 13-point streak to begin the second half, Pittston Area scored 10 more in a row to end the third quarter and start the fourth. Locker had a 3-pointer and a three-point play that made it 55-22 with 6:56 left.
With the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association still operating under some COVID-related alterations to its events, Pittston Area gets to host the first round of the state tournament. The Patriots (20-4) take a 10-game winning streak into their game Tuesday against District 3 sixth-seed Lower Dauphin (13-13).
