Pittston Area managed just one win in 11 boys basketball games, covering more than five weeks.
But, the Patriots closed the regular season with four straight wins, in a span of only nine days, to hit the District 2 Class 5A playoffs looking like a more dangerous team than their 9-13 record shows.
Paul Jordan McGarry carried a struggling offense and the defense made a series of key stops Monday night when Pittston Area finished the regular season with a 40-37, overtime victory over visiting Tunkhannock in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 game.
Pittston Area finished 5-9 for fifth of eight teams in Division 1. The Patriots will enter the Class 5A playoffs as the sixth seed in a seven-team field.
McGarry led Monday’s victory with 16 points, including 14 of the 22 that the Patriots managed after halftime.
Pittston Area pulled out the victory despite producing just one field goal in the final 8:37.
The Patriots countered by holding the Tigers scoreless in overtime until the final 13.4 seconds. They scored seven of the eight overtime points before the Tigers got a harmless 3-pointer from Ethan Ergott with two seconds left.
Aiden Lynn scored all five of his points on a three-point play and two more free throws to help Pittston Area to an 11-9 lead after one quarter.
The Patriots managed just one field goal, by Lucas Lopresto, in the second quarter but led 18-15 at halftime. They went 5-for-6 from the line in the quarter and 8-for-9 in the half.
Tunkhannock rallied into a 20-20 tie, but Pittston Area went back in front 24-20 going into the fourth quarter. McGarry had all six of the team’s points in the third quarter.
McGarry opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer 16 seconds in to complete a personal seven-point streak to a 27-20 lead.
Colin Gregory ended a scoreless drought of 4½ minutes with the first of his two fourth-quarter, 3-pointers for Tunkhannock 24 seconds later.
That sparked a 13-5 run by the Tigers, allowing them to take a 33-32 lead into the final minute.
Pittston Area called two timeouts in the final 40 seconds and got two shots at moving ahead, but went just 1-for-4 from the line in the last 14.6 seconds of regulation to settle for overtime. Ciaran Bilbow made the first of those free throws and Matt Walter rebounded the miss of the second to get the Patriots another try.
Tunkhannock had a good look from about 28 feet at the final buzzer, but the attempt at the winner spun around the rim and out.
Neither team could score for 1:54 of overtime until Silvio Giardina made a steal and fed Lopresto for a layup.
Giardina went 3-for-6 from the line in overtime and 5-for-8 in the game to add seven points.
McGarry’s two free throws with 18.1 seconds left made it 38-33 and made sure the Tigers never got another shot at tying it up.
Ergott led Tunkhannock with 15 points.