WYOMING AREA BOYS BASKETBALL ROUNDUPWarriors suffer first division loss, but close in on WVC Tournament appearance

Wyoming Area lost its hold on the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 boys basketball lead Tuesday, but battled back Friday to move within one win of securing a berth in the WVC Tournament.

The Warriors finished the week even in the loss column and a half-game behind Holy Redeemer at 8-1 in the division, leading to a possibility of a first-place tie. They are 13-5 and third of 10 teams in the race for eight District 2 Class 4A playoffs.

The top two finishers in each division enter the four-team WVC playoffs. Wyoming Area closed in on playing in that tournament for the first time with Friday’s road win over third-place Nanticoke.

Wyoming Area 58, Nanticoke 52

NANTICOKE — Wyoming Area and Nanticoke battled through four quarters Friday night in a physical game that bordered on a slugfest.

The Warriors, just like in their previous matchup with the Trojans this season, were able to land the decisive blows when it mattered most.

Wyoming Area came up with big bucket after big bucket in the fourth, putting a feisty Nanticoke squad down by a 58-52 final score.

“It was big,” Wyoming Area coach Anthony Macario said. “We needed this one. We knew it was going to be super physical.

“They got us here in the playoffs last year in a real similar type game, and our guys responded when it counted.”

Dane Schutter led the Warriors with 19 points and Brady Noone had 16. After a relatively quiet first half, Noone was a huge catalyst for Wyoming Area in the final eight minutes when he scored nine points.

Though Wyoming Area led pretty much throughout, the Trojans refused to give an inch and kept the Warriors within striking distance through three quarters, trailing by just six heading into the final quarter.

Then Noone got rolling. Back-to-back possessions ended with him scoring at the rim, and then he found himself wide open in the corner, not a Trojan defender in sight.

Noone nailed the 3-pointer, extending the Warrior lead into double digits and quieting a very energetic Nanticoke crowd in the process.

“I heard my teammates saying shoot it, I knew there wasn’t much time left on the clock,” Noone said. “I was wide open, I let it fly and I buried it … it was a big turning point in the game.”

Nanticoke managed to keep it from getting out of hand, largely due to the work of Jaidyn Johnson on offense, but the flurry of Warrior offense proved to be too much to fight back from.

Johnson didn’t play in the first matchup, and he and Schutter mixed it up in the paint all night long.

“Credit to Jaidyn, he’s a great player but I accepted the challenge from our coach to face-guard him,” Schutter said. “I’m proud of the way our team played, proud of the way they played help defense without me and I’m glad we got the win tonight.”

Though Johnson was the game’s high scorer with 21 points, Schutter was able to win the battle on the glass and create plenty of second-chance opportunities for him and his team by pulling down a number of offensive rebounds.

“In my opinion, Dane’s the best player in the league and when he and Jaidyn go at it, it’s fun to watch,” Macario said. “Dane played outstanding tonight, made some big shots and got some huge rebounds when we needed to.”

Many of Schutter’s points came while finishing through contact, a familiar theme for both sides in this one. The two squads combined for 34 team fouls, 19 coming from Nanticoke.

Johnson was hampered by foul trouble after picking up his third personal midway through the second quarter, and Nanticoke Area’s other standout scorer Liam Mullery fouled out in the fourth quarter with just eight points.

Matt Rusinchak, who hit three 3-pointers, added 11 points while Anthony DeLucca had eight for Wyoming Area in the win.

Nanticoke fell to 6-4 in the league with the loss.

Holy Redeemer 59, Wyoming Area 46

EXETER — Holy Redeemer showed Tuesday night that it’s not about to surrender its status as defending champion.

Even if the guys defending that championship are basically a new bunch.

One of them, though, was instrumental in last season’s WVC Division 2 title and was instrumental in keeping hopes for a three-peat in place.

George Sabatini scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Holy Redeemer pulled away in the fourth quarter for a victory to avenge an earlier loss and take over first place.

Wyoming Area won the first meeting 74-68 in triple overtime on its home court Jan. 9.

“Fouling out against them the first time I just wanted to go out and put it all on the court,” said Sabatini, who tied his season high in points. “I feel like our team has gotten so much better. We went out there and proved what we’ve been working on.”

Sabatini helped the Royals expand a one-point lead over the final 4½ minutes.

Holy Redeemer’s Brayden Sock hit a 3-pointer for his only points of the game and to give the Royals a 46-42 lead at 4:27 of the fourth quarter. Sabatini then hit a 3-pointer and drove right down the lane for a layup, bumping the advantage to 51-42 with just over two minutes remaining. He scored the game’s final points by grabbing a rebound and finishing off with a layup.

Wyoming Area overcame a shaky offensive performance in the second quarter, going nearly five minutes without a point, but still managing a 22-21 halftime lead. The Warriors recovered in the third quarter and consecutive baskets by Dane Schutter and Tyler Sciandra early in the fourth tied the score 39-39.

The Warriors, however, managed just three more field goals the rest of the way.

“We struggled a little bit offensively tonight,” Wyoming Area coach Anthony Macario said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. We had too many first-half turnovers that hurt us, and they got us on the glass pretty good. All those things kind of factored in the end result being what it was.”

Sabatini also pointed to the play of Holy Redeemer’s guards, whose ballhandling significantly cut down turnovers after the first quarter. Guard Mark Atherton had 10 points, including a 3-pointer that gave the Royals a 37-35 lead entering the fourth quarter. David Popson, the Royals’ other big man, finished with 12 points and six rebounds.

Schutter led Wyoming Area with 15 points. Brady Noone added 10, Tyler Sciandra nine and Athony DeLucca eight.