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<p>YATESVILLE &#8212; Had the Nanticoke Area Trojans taken care of business last week, they would have been home Wednesday night.</p><p>Instead, there they were at Pittston Area High School, fighting to keep their Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 boys basketball crown and losing the battle.</p><p>Nanticoke Area, though, dug itself out of a 13-point hole with strong ending of the second quarter that carried over to the third in its 60-49 victory over GAR.</p><p>Nanticoke Area&#8217;s second consecutive divisional title clinched a spot in the inaugural WVC Championship tournament.</p><p>The Trojans (13-5 Div. 2, 18-5) play Division 1 champion Hazleton Area (14-2 Div. 1, 15-6) in the semifinals Friday at Dallas High School. Wild-card entry Crestwood (14-3 Div. 1, 18-5) faces Division 3 champ Wyoming Seminary (15-1 Div. 3, 20-2) in the other semifinal.</p><p>Game times will be 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., but it hasn&#8217;t been determined which semifinal will be first. The championship game is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hazleton Area.</p><p>GAR (12-6 Div. 2, 15-8) will be off until next week&#8217;s District 2 Class 4A playoffs, although it appeared early on that the Grenadiers would be playing Friday.</p><p>GAR jumped to an 8-0 start and behind the 3-point shooting of Jared O&#8217;Day took a 30-17 lead with 2:20 left until halftime. It was a shock to Nanticoke Area, which had the division in its hands by defeating GAR on Feb. 5 only to lose 44-43 to Tunkhannock two days later.</p><p>&#8220;These guys are excited,&#8221; Nanticoke Area coach John Beggs said. &#8220;I came in (the locker room) and they wanted to bust my chops and throw a little water around. For them to bounce back after we didn&#8217;t take care of business last week after a game we thought we could have won. The first half didn&#8217;t go our way, but these guys were resilient. The second half was phenomenal.&#8221;</p><p>Nanticoke Area had sporadic continuity on offense until reserve Andy Kozlofski nailed a 3-pointer to start a 7-2 run to close out the quarter.</p><p>Colby Butczynski provided a jolt with a power move inside for a basket to start the third and Nanticoke Area was on its way to erasing the deficit for good. That finally happened at 1:12 of the third when Trahjan Krupinski rebounded his own miss and kicked the ball out to Kozlofski for a jumper at the foul line. Nate Kreitzer finished off the period with his fourth 3-pointer of the game for a 45-41 advantage.</p><p>The Grenadiers were outscored 21-9 in the third as they were plagued by six turnovers.</p><p>&#8220;Just more intensity,&#8221; Butczynski said. &#8220;We kept the same plan as we did from the beginning of the game.&#8221;</p><p>Things didn&#8217;t improve for GAR in the fourth as Kreitzer opened the quarter with a drive and a dish to Krupinski. An 8-2 run a bit later bumped the Nanticoke Area lead to 56-45 and pretty much wrapped up the championship.</p><p>&#8220;At halftime, we talked about them going on a run. They were favored to win the division all year,&#8221; GAR coach Jerry Altavilla said. &#8220;They&#8217;re a good team and we knew they would go on a run. We didn&#8217;t weather that run too good.&#8221;</p><p>GAR had just six field goals in the second half as it was outscored 36-17 in the final two quarters. Will Johnson scored 13, O&#8217;Day had 12 and Curtis Smith added 11 for the Grenadiers.</p><p><strong>NOTE:</strong> GAR last won the Division 2 championship during the 2015-16 season when it defeated Nanticoke Area 58-57 in triple overtime in a special playoff game.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>WVC Division 2 Championship</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Nanticoke Area 60, GAR 49</strong></p><p><strong>NANTICOKE AREA (60)</strong> &#8212; Nate Kreitzer 7 5-6 23, Colby Butczynski 6 7-8 19, Trahjan Krupinski 2 0-0 4, Jake Krupinski 2 1-1 5, Dylan Szychowski 1 0-1 2, JJ Bielicki 0 0-0 0, Andy Kozlofski 3 0-0 7. <strong>Totals 21 13-16 60.</strong></p><p><strong>GAR (49)</strong> &#8212; Will Johnson 3 6-7 13, Jared O&#8217;Day 4 0-0 12, Tyler Young 1 0-0 3, Curtis Smith 5 0-0 11, Curon Smith 5 0-0 10. <strong>Totals 18 6-7 49.</strong></p><p><strong>Nanticoke`7`17`21`15 &#8212; 60</strong></p><p><strong>GAR`14`18`9`8 &#8212; 49</strong></p><p><strong>Three-point goals </strong>&#8212; NAN 5 (Kreitzer 4, Kozlofski); GAR 7 (O&#8217;Day 4, Johnson, Young, Curt. Smith)</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">GAR&#8217;s Will Johnson puts up a shot between Nanticoke&#8217;s Jake Krupinski (22), Colby Butczynski (4) and Dylan Szychowski (35) during Wednesday night&#8217;s WVC Division 2 championship game. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>GAR&#8217;s Will Johnson puts up a shot between Nanticoke&#8217;s Jake Krupinski (22), Colby Butczynski (4) and Dylan Szychowski (35) during Wednesday night&#8217;s WVC Division 2 championship game. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Colby Butczynski goes up for a rebound against GAR during Wednesday&#8217;s WVC Division 2 championship game. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Colby Butczynski goes up for a rebound against GAR during Wednesday&#8217;s WVC Division 2 championship game. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Trahjan Krupinski (20) takes a shot in the lane between GAR&#8217;s Curtis Smith (left) and Curon Smith. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Trahjan Krupinski (20) takes a shot in the lane between GAR&#8217;s Curtis Smith (left) and Curon Smith. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Nate Kreitzer scores on a fastbreak in the third quarter as GAR&#8217;s Will Johnson pursues. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Nate Kreitzer scores on a fastbreak in the third quarter as GAR&#8217;s Will Johnson pursues. </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Nanticoke Area Trojans celebrate their 60-49 victory over GAR on Wednesday in the WVC Division 2 championship game at Pittston Area High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Nanticoke-GAR-BBB-5.jpg</photo4><caption4>The Nanticoke Area Trojans celebrate their 60-49 victory over GAR on Wednesday in the WVC Division 2 championship game at Pittston Area High School. </caption4><photoCredit4></photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Nanticoke Area defends Division 2 title</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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H.S. Boys Basketball: Nanticoke Area defeats GAR for WVC Division 2 championship