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YATESVILLE &mdash; No doubt the first quarter was bad for Pittston Area on Wednesday night. But all things considered, it wasn&rsquo;t as bad as it could have been.
				That how Pittston Area sharp shooter JJ Walsh viewed the first eight minutes. Sure, he and his teammates didn&rsquo;t score, but they only surrendered four points. And with plenty of game to play, this wasn&rsquo;t a hole to dig out of but a divot.
				&ldquo;Usually when you score zero, you&rsquo;re like, the game might be over,&rdquo; Walsh said. &ldquo;But the fact as a team we held them to four, we were still in it.&rdquo;
				Then Pittston Area took Lake-Lehman out of the game in the third quarter thanks to Walsh, who drilled three 3-pointers as the Patriots opened their boys basketball season with a 51-26 victory.
				Walsh scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the third quarter as Pittston Area reversed a 15-14 halftime deficit into a 36-21 lead entering the fourth quarter. The Patriots shot 3-of-22 in the first half and 8-of-11 in the third quarter. They took the lead for good, 16-15, when Matt Johnson scored to open the second half.
				Walsh is the only returning starter from a team which advanced to the second round of the PIAA Class 5A playoffs last season. Johnson was a key reserve. Aside from those two, there was very little varsity experience returning, so off-season workouts and summer league games were going to be critical.
				Only thing was the COVID-19 pandemic nixed those plans.
				&ldquo;We started and in the preseason we got shut down for 10 days,&rdquo; Pittston Area coach Al Semenza said. &ldquo;Then the school decided to shut down for a few days because in the community we had some numbers up. And then, of course, when the whole state went down, we went down.
				&ldquo;And when you have a lot of guys who haven&rsquo;t played a lot competitively against other teams that matters. The layoffs, obviously, help the teams that have been together for a while.&rdquo;
				Lehman has been together for a while and was hoping the cohesiveness would pay off this season. The Black Knights started the season impressively, losing 51-49 to a Wilkes-Barre Area team expected to be a contender in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 and following with a rout of Berwick.
				But a third game in five days seemed to affect the Black Knights in the second half. They managed just three field goals and were outscored 22-6 in the third quarter.
				&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say that we&rsquo;re burned out,&rdquo; Lehman coach Dwayne Kalinay said, &ldquo;but if you look at the first half versus the second, boy we just looked a tick slower on defense. And as you saw in the second half, all you need to give guys like Walsh is another second.&rdquo;
				Walsh sandwiched 3-pointers around one by Dom Jannuzzi as the Patriots opened a 28-18 lead at 3:30 of the third quarter. Johnson finished off the quarter by converting a steal into a layup and making a precision pass to Walsh inside for another bucket.
				Johnson finished with 11 for Pittston Area. Max Paczewski and Josh Kane added eight each for Lehman.
				Pittston Area 51, Lake-Lehman 26
				LAKE-LEHMAN (26) &mdash; Max Paczewski 4 0-0 8, Ethan Adams 1 0-0 2, Josh Kane 4 0-0 8, Cole Morio 0 3-8 3, Hayden Klopp 1 1-2 4, Jared Barber 0 0-0 0, Matt Whitesell 0 1-2 1, Corey Bean 0 0-0 0, Joe Pelton 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 5-12 26.
				PITTSTON AREA (51) &mdash; Matt Johnson 3 4-4 11, Dom Jannuzzi 1 2-2 5, JJ Walsh 6 0-3 15, Jack Locker 0 2-2 2, David Behm 1 2-2 4, Omar Aziz 2 0-0 4, Anthony Cencetti 2 0-0 6, Ethan Ghannam 1 0-0 2, Brayden Powers 0 0-0 0, Jack Long 1 0-0 2, Ethan Maslowski 0 0-0 0, Nick Cerasaro 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 10-13 51.
				Lake-Lehman`4`11`6`5 &mdash; 26
				Pittston Area`0`14`22`15 &mdash; 51
				Three-point goals: LL 1 (Klopp). PA 7 (Johnson, Jannuzzi, Walsh 3, Cencetti 2).

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H.S. Boys Basketball: Pittston Area recovers from slow start, rolls past Lake-Lehman