web1_SRM_8505.jpg

Nanticoke Area rolls to district girls basketball semifinals

web1_Lockard.jpeg

Hazleton Police seeking Wapwallopen woman in fentanyl case

EXETER &#8212; Crestwood will now hope the third time is the charm. But this time, the Comets will have two cracks at that elusive state playoff berth.Using a tight defense and a time-eating offense, Crestwood was able to defeat West Scranton 45-32 Tuesday night in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School.Crestwood (19-6) advanced to Friday&#8217;s semifinals, where it will play Wallenpaupack (18-6) at a site and time to be announced. Wallenpaupack defeated Honesdale 61-52 in its quarterfinal game.The Comets&#8217; season ended with semifinal losses the past two seasons, but with three D2-5A teams making the state tournament a loss won&#8217;t be fatal. It would send them to the third-place game. Only two teams advanced the past two seasons.&#8220;You got to win them in different ways,&#8221; Crestwood coach Mark Atherton said. &#8220;Tonight, it was the old style. Defense, run a little clock. It was good.&#8221;Crestwood scored just four points over the game&#8217;s final 6:46. But a three-point play by Camden Boris to start the fourth gave the Comets a 41-23 lead and plenty of wiggle room to eat up time.Plus, West Scranton (7-17) hasn&#8217;t been known for a stout offense this season and making up the deficit seemed unlikely. The Invaders failed to reach 30 points three times and couldn&#8217;t muster 40 seven times.Even the Invaders&#8217; 18-point first quarter came from an unexpected source as Lewin Fernandez tossed in three 3-pointers. He managed one more basket over the final three periods. Leading scorer Cayden Merrifield was held scoreless in the first quarter and finished with six points.&#8220;The key to the game game was Merrifield,&#8221; Atherton said. &#8220;He got six points and he&#8217;s averaging probably close to 16. That was big. (Fernandez) did a good job in the first quarter. He had three threes and he has four all year. We doubled down a little bit and he made us pay.&#8220;Overall, I&#8217;m proud of my guys. They played great defense and handled their pressure.&#8221;West Scranton was able to close within 27-23 at 6:25 of the third, but then went over eight minutes without scoring. Crestwood took control during that span with a 14-0 run kick-started by a 3-pointer by Ryan Petrosky.Boris paced Crestwood with 13. Petrosky had 12.The fewest points Crestwood has allowed this season came in a 50-27 victory over Meyers on Dec. 22.CLASS 3AHoly Redeemer 73, Riverside 55The No. 2 Royals knocked off No. 7 Riverside, building a big lead and holding off a late surge. Nick Prociak led all scorers with 22 points followed by Collin Cook, who scored 17.Up next for the Royals is a Friday semifinal against No. 3 Mid Valley, which beat No. 6 Carbondale 61-36.Wyoming Seminary 72, Lake-Lehman 32Top-seeded Wyoming Seminary defeated the No. 8 Black Knights as Dimitri Gnall had a game-high 17 points for the Blue Knights followed by Jeremy Callahan who scored 14.The Blue Knights advanced to Friday&#8217;s semifinals, where they will take on fourth-seeded Lakeland, a 53-40 victor over Dunmore.Lehman was led by Nate Salus,who finished with nine points.District 2 Class 5A QuarterfinalCrestwood 45, West Scranton 32WEST SCRANTON (32) &#8212; Lewin Fernandez 4 0-0 12, Cayden Merrifield 2 0-0 6, Nick Gioia 2 0-0 4, Nick Forsette 1 0-0 2, Jalen Gregory 1 0-0 2, Brandon Barnes 1 2-2 4, Brennan Burnside 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 2-2 32.CRESTWOOD (45) &#8212; Ryan Petrosky 3 4-4 12, Brad Papura 2 0-2 4, Sean Murphy 2 0-1 5, Camden Boris 5 2-4 13, Mike Palmiero 2 0-0 4, Jacob Zaleski 1 3-3 5, Frank Casarella 0 0-0 0, Marcus Vieney 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 9-14 45.West Scranton`11`7`5`9 &#8212; 32Crestwood`13`12`13`7 &#8212; 45Three-point goals &#8212; WS 6 (Fernandez 4, Merrifield 2). CRE 4 (Petrosky 2, Murphy, Boris).District 2 Class 3A QuarterfinalHoly Redeemer 73, Riverside 55RIVERSIDE (55) &#8212; Michael Rickert 4 4-4 15, Razen Rezes 5 0-0 13, Brandon Reed 3 4-4 11, Sam Hartman 2 0-0 6, Kyle Puchalski 2 0-0 5, Noah Berkosky 1 0-0 3, Michael Antoniacci 1 0-0 2, Josh Godlewski 0 0-0 0, Collin Kniess 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 8-8 55.HOLY REDEEMER (73) &#8212; Nick Prociak 10 2-3 22, Collin Cook 7 2-2 17, Justice Shoats 5 2-3 12, Derek Answini 2 0-0 6, Jared Pointkowski 3 0-2 6, Mason Mondygral 3 0-0 6, Josh Andrejko 0 2-2 2, Jake Pizzalato 1 0-0 2, Alex Rymen 0 0-0 0. Totals 31 8-12 73.Riverside`13`10`12`20 &#8212; 55Holy Redeemer`18`21`17`17 &#8212; 73Three-point goals &#8212; RIV 11 (Reyes 3, Rickat 3, Hartman 2, Puchalski, Berkosky, Reed); HR 3 (Answini 2, Cook).District 2 Class 3A QuarterfinalWyoming Seminary 72, Lake-Lehman 32LAKE-LEHMAN (32) &#8212; Nate Salus 4 1-2 9, CJ Cercone 3 0-0 7, Abe Dabsheh 2 1-2 5, Donnie Thompson 2 0-2 4, Max Paczewski 1 0-0 3, Josh Kane 1 0-1 3, Ryan Kane 0 0-0 0, Justin Timonte 0 0-0 0, Sean Sabluski 0 0-0 0, Sean Hanley 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 3-9 32.WYOMING SEMINARY (72) &#8212; Dimitri Gnall 7 2-2 17, Jeremy Callahan 4 3-4 14, Ethan Meuser 2 2-2 7, Jake Koretz 3 0-0 7, Nick Ganter 2 2-4 6, Ryan Anderson 1 3-4 5, Todd Phillips 2 0-0 4, Alex Meuser 0 4-4 4, John Coates 1 0-0 3, Flanley Gavin 1 0-0 3, Nick Bufalino 1 0-0 2, Andy Maddock 0 0-0 0, Aidan Murphy 0 0-0 0, Ben Paglia 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 16-20 72.Lake-Lehman`5`7`10`10 &#8212; 32Wyoming Seminary`15`14`22`21 &#8212; 72Three-point goals &#8212; LL 3 (Paczewski, Cercone, Kane); WS 8 (Callahan 3, Koretz, Gnall, Coates, E. Meuser, Gavin).<style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood&#8217;s Sean Murphy, right, drives to the hoop against West Scranton&#8217;s Jalen Gregory in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Crestwood&#8217;s Sean Murphy, right, drives to the hoop against West Scranton&#8217;s Jalen Gregory in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood&#8217;s Camden Boris drives past West Scranton&#8217;s Nick Gioia in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Crestwood&#8217;s Camden Boris drives past West Scranton&#8217;s Nick Gioia in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood&#8217;s Mike Palmiero shoots against West Scranton&#8217;s Nick Forsette in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL022019HSBB-Crestwood-WestScranton_3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Crestwood&#8217;s Mike Palmiero shoots against West Scranton&#8217;s Nick Forsette in a District 2 Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Tuesday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></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>

H.S. Boys Basketball: Crestwood clamps down on West Scranton