SCRANTON — Nanticoke Area’s boys basketball season ultimately ended one win short of a state tournament appearance, but not before the Trojans took one last shot in an impressive second-half comeback attempt Wednesday night.
Scranton Prep shook off Nanticoke scoring the first 15 points of the second half to emerge with a 52-45, home-court victory in the game to determine District 2’s third and final Class 4A qualifiers in the PIAA tournament.
The Trojans trailed by 13 twice in the second quarter before jumping in front, 36-33, by taking advantage of Scranton Prep’s 0-for-14 start to the second half.
“At halftime, our two seniors, our two leaders, Chris Johnson and Owen Brown, said ‘we’re not going down without a fight, we’re going out on our terms’,” Nanticoke coach Zach Pientka said. “We did everything and more to get back in the game.
“We wanted to defensive rebound and get out in transition and we did that.”
Scranton Prep recovered, then put together a closing 11-3 run after Brown scored off an in-bounds play with 5:52 left for the last Nanticoke lead, 42-41.
Payton Kepp’s 3-pointer with 1:59 remaining made it, 46-45, but Scranton Prep shut down Nanticoke the rest of the way and six of 10 free throws to close out the win.
James Pettinato and Andrew Ferguson had 12 points each to lead the Cavaliers, who had their seven-year run as district champion ended by Mid Valley in Saturday’s semifinals.
Matt Cobb added 10 points.
Kepp had seven points in the third quarter and finished with 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the Trojans. Chris Johnson added 10 points.
Jaidyn Johnson had eight points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots. He had seven defensive rebounds in the third quarter when…