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YATESVILLE &#8212; Pittston Area had a breakout offensively Friday night, scoring the most points in a game all season.One problem &#8212; Wyoming Valley West did the same thing.The Spartans jumped to a 17-point halftime lead and withstood several Pittston Area rally attempts for a 77-69 victory in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball game.Valley West improved to 2-3 in the division and 5-6 overall. Aaron Austin finished with a team-high 20 points in his second game back since missing a few contests with an illness. Draig Ruff added 16, with 12 coming in the fourth quarter.&#8220;Aaron Austin is back after a sickness, and now he&#8217;s back and he gave us a boost,&#8221; said Valley West coach Rich Jones, whose team cracked the 70-point barrier for the first time in 15 games dating back to last season. &#8220;Now Sean Judge is out with a sickness, the flu, but we&#8217;ll get him back Tuesday. I liked how our defense pressured them tonight.&#8221;The bench also played a critical role down the stretch as starters Amistad Hackett and Savion Saunders fouled out early in the fourth quarter.Pittston Area dropped to 1-3 in the division and 4-6 overall. Alex McAndrew had 25, sparking the Patriots in the second half after a lethargic performance on the offensive end in the first two quarters.The Patriots hadn&#8217;t played since last Friday as their game with Hazleton Area was postponed Tuesday due to inclement weather. The off-time certainly wasn&#8217;t good for an offense averaging 42 points over the last three games and it showed in the first quarter.Pittston Area shot 3 of 12 from the field in the first eight minutes, while Valley West scorched the net with an 8 of 11 performance. The result was a 19-8 lead that swelled to 36-19 at halftime.The Pittston Area&#8217;s offense, though, opened the third strongly with Chris Klein scoring on a rebound and McAndrew nailing a 3-pointer from the right wing to start the period. A couple 3-pointers by Naseem Guillaume in the fourth moved the Patriots within 68-62 at the 2:17 mark. They couldn&#8217;t get any closer.&#8220;A sense of urgency,&#8221; Pittston Area coach Alan Keisinger said of the 50-point second half. &#8220;We came out flat and have been struggling a little bit. We lost a close game to Crestwood, won a tight game with Coughlin and then Dallas put one on us.&#8220;The confidence at the start of the game was down a little bit. We haven&#8217;t played in a week. It would have helped if we played Hazleton just to know what it feels like to be in a game still.&#8221;The fourth quarter didn&#8217;t resemble a game, it was a free-throw shooting display with both teams in the double bonus. They combined for 42 free throws in the period, with some actual on-court action sprinkled in sporadically.Hazleton Area 69, Dallas 48Jeffrey Planutis led four Cougars in double figures with 22 points, followed by Josh Samec, Nolan Genasevich and Da&#8217;mir Faison, who all finished with 10.The Mountaineers got 15 points from Jay Bittner and 10 from Joe Parsons.Crestwood 54, Coughlin 35Lance Blass turned in a 19-point performance as Kyle Gegaris added 11 in the Comets&#8217; win. Crestwood hit seven threes from four different players.Melvin Robinson led the Crusaders with 12 points.Wyo. Val. West 77, Pittston Area 69WVW (77) &#8212; Noah Frace 4 3-5 13, Savion Saunders 2 0-0 4, Aaron Austin 7 2-3 20, Draig Ruff 5 6-11 16, Amistad Hackett 3 5-7 11, Montel Jordan 2 3-9 8, Davis Weaver 1 1-2 3, Cortes Adams 1 0-0 2, Tyrek Widbee 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 20-37 77.PITTSTON AREA (69) &#8212; Chris Klein 1 4-4 6, Alex McAndrew 9 6-9 25, Matt McGlynn 2 0-0 6, Patrick Mitchell 5 3-5 13, Keemar Woodruff 1 3-8 5, Mike Mazurkivich 0 3-8 3, Naseem Guillaume 2 5-5 11, Brennan Higgins 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 24-38 69.WVW`19`17`18`23`&#8212;`77Pittston Area`8`11`21`29`&#8212;`69Three-point goals &#8212; WVW 7 (Frace 2, Austin 4, Jordan). PA 5 (McAndrew, McGlynn 2, Guillaume 2).Hazleton Area 69, Dallas 48DALLAS (48) &#8212; Collin Pertl 1 0-0 2, Alex Charlton 2 0-0 6, Nick Kocher 1 0-0 2, Joe Parsons 5 0-2 10, Jay Bittner 6 3-4 15, Ethan Szczencinski 1 0-0 2, Ben O&#8217;Connell 0 0-0 0, Steven Finarelli 0 0-0 0, Matt Mathers 0 0-0 0, Ben Donahue 3 0-0 7, Andrew Kovalick 1 0-0 2, Brody Strickland 0 0-0 0, Michael Farrell 4 0-0 2. Totals 21 3-6 48.HAZLETON AREA (69) &#8212; Josh Samec 3 3-3 10, Michael Cusatis 3 0-0 6, Sparky Wolk 0 0-0 0, Aaron Kellmer 1 0-0 3, Joe Grula 1 3-4 5, Nolan Genasevich 4 2-3 10, Scott Shamany 0 0-0 0, Isaac Perez 1 1-2 3, Jeffrey Planutis 8 3-5 22, Da&#8217;Mir Faison 2 5-7 10, Nathan Begg 0 0-2 0, Frank Mussoline 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 17-26 69.Dallas`9`10`18`11 &#8212; 48Hazleton`24`15`10`20 &#8212; 69Three-point goals &#8212; DAL 3 (Charlton 2, Donahue); HAZ 6 (Planutis 3, Samec, Kellmer, Faison)Crestwood 54, Coughlin 35COUGHLIN (35) &#8212; Thomas Davis 1 0-0 3, Melvin Robinson 6 0-3 12, Charles Cobbs 3 1-1 9, Marco Deluca 1 2-3 4, Aaron Bennett 0 1-2 1, Dylan Thomas 0 0-0 0, Anthony Hinkle 0 0-0 0, Nyseem Johnson 0 0-0 0, Idris Hollis 0 0-0 0, Tony Egidio 0 0-0 0, Julius Morris 3 0-0 6. Totals 14 4-9 35.CRESTWOOD (54) &#8212; Kyle Gegaris 3 3-4 11, Lance Blass 8 1-1 19, Kevin Klusewitz 2 0-0 5, Kyle Richards 0 2-2 2, Noah Jackson 3 3-5 9, Sean Murphy 2 0-0 6, Camden Boris 1 0-0 2, Nick Andrews 0 0-0 0, Mike Ayala 0 0-0 0, Mike Kozelsky 0 0-0 0, Evan Knapp 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 9-12 54.Coughlin`11`9`13`2 &#8212; 35Crestwood`16`9`14`15 &#8212; 54Three-point goals &#8212; COU 3 (Cobbs 2, Davis); CRE 7 (Gegaris 2, Blass 2, Murphy 2, Klusewitz)<style>
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<div class="neCaption">WVW's Noah France (3) looks for an open man while being guarded by Pittston Area's Mike Mazurkivich. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PA-WVW-BBB-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>WVW's Noah France (3) looks for an open man while being guarded by Pittston Area's Mike Mazurkivich. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PA-WVW-BBB-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Amistad Hackett (22) gets past PA's Patrick Mitchell (50) for two-points for Wyoming Valley West at Pittston Area Friday night. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_PA-WVW-BBB-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Amistad Hackett (22) gets past PA's Patrick Mitchell (50) for two-points for Wyoming Valley West at Pittston Area Friday night. Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By John Erzarjerzar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Valley West gets up early, holds off Pittston Area