Pittston Area cheerleaders and the school’s student section did all they could do during Casino Night at the game to cheer on their Patriots.
PIttston Area senior Anthony Cencetti takes an outside shot against West Scranton. Cencetti finished his high school basketball career with 12-points on the night.
Sophomore Silvio Giardina hits on this 3-point shot for Pittston Area against West Scranton.
Patriot Ethan Clarke drives to the board against West Scranton at Pittston Area.
Patriot Ethan Clarke drives to the board against West Scranton at Pittston Area.
This time around, the West Scranton lead never got as big, but the Invaders were determined not to let it get away.
After blowing a 23-point, second-half lead against Pittston Area in December in Scranton, the Invaders avenged the loss and knocked the defending champion Patriots out of the District 2 Class 5A boys basketball tournament Tuesday night.
Chris Ogden went 11-for-12 from the line in the fourth quarter to finish a 24-point performance in the 56-45, quarterfinal victory.
“If we didn’t have that loss, I don’t know if we’d be where we are today because it made us look at the big picture,” West Scranton coach Mike Fazzi said. “What we were doing wasn’t good enough.”
It wasn’t even good enough to protect a 23-point lead.
“At that time, we were a real young team early in the year,” Fazzi said. “We had some terrible shots and bad turnovers.”
This time, Fazzi said, the Invaders played smarter.
They needed to with Pittston Area hitting 3-pointers and trying to claw back in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Cencetti brought the Patriots within four with 3:42 left, Silvio Giardina made it a five-point game with 1:46 left and Paul Jordan McGarry made it 50-45 with 1:02 remaining.
Each time, West Scranton went back to adding to its lead.
After the last 3-pointer, Ogden hit six straight free throws in the final minute to complete the scoring.
Pittston Area wound up losing its last five games, all by double figures margins after starting out 14-3 to contend for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title and a potential top seed in its district title defense.
Instead, the Patriots went in as the third seed and could not get past the sixth-seeded Invaders, who have been coming on strong late in the season.
West Scranton followed up the win over Pittston Area by beating WVC Division 1 champion and tournament second seed Dallas, 78-72, in overtime Friday night.
Giardina scored 18 points and Cencetti 12 for Pittston Area, but the Patriots could not overcome West Scranton’s 21-for-28 foul shooting, including 14-for-18 in the fourth quarter.
Giardina had seven points in the first quarter when the Patriots took a 13-10 lead.
The Invaders tied the game, 24-24, at halftime.
Pittston Area led in early in the third quarter before being held to one basket over the last seven minutes of the quarter.
