Dallas’ Jude Nocito drives to the basket surrounded by Wilkes-Barre Area defenders in the second quarter of the Wyoming Valley Conference championship game.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas’ Nick Williams drives between Wilkes-Barre Area’s Mike Keating (5) and Kaprie Cottle in the second quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas’ Jack Dale looks to pass with Wilkes-Barre Area’s Channing Brown guarding him in the second quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Wilkes-Barre Area’s David Jannuzzi has the ball come loose while trying to get between Dallas’ Mikey Cumbo (23) and Nick Williams in the first quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Dallas’ Jack Dale and Wilkes-Barre Area’s Vincent Garrett scramble for a loose ball under the Wilkes-Barre basket in the second quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
HAZLE TWP. — In two meetings in the regular season, Dallas came up just a basket short against Wilkes-Barre Area both times.
The Mountaineers would not be denied a third time — and they’re hoisting championship hardware as a result.
Zach Paczewski had 18 points to lead a trio of Mountaineers in double figures, and Dallas’ defense locked down the Wolfpack to pick up a 61-46 win, bringing home the Wyoming Valley Conference championship.
Mikey Cumbo added 16 and Nick Williams had 15 points, including a crowd-popping dunk in the third quarter, to help lead Dallas past the Wolfpack, using a perfect balance on offense to find their buckets.
“Jude (Nocito) and Mikey (Cumbo), everyone keys on them because those are our guys, they’re awesome,” Paczewski said. “They just find me, get me the ball and I’ve just got to make a power layup or a three here and there.”
Saturday’s game saw the return of Nocito to the lineup after missing Dallas’s semifinal win over Holy Redeemer. He scored a couple of points early, then settled into his role as the guy running the offense to great effect.
The Mountaineers pulled ahead early and kept the Wolfpack at arm’s length for much of the first half, taking a nine-point lead into half and a 13-point lead at the end of three quarters.
As fluid as the offense was, the effort on the defensive end of the floor was what carried the night for the Mountaineers.
In WBA’s semifinal win over Wyoming Area, the Wolfpack scored 61 points in the first half and knocked down 10 three-pointers.
It was a different story on Saturday, as the Wolfpack never scored more than 15 points in a quarter and only connected on three triples — all from leading scorer Evan Laybourn-Boddie, who finished with 17 points.
The Wolfpack found a ton of success getting out in transition and scoring on the fastbreak against Wyoming Area, but the Mountaineers slowed things down and forced WBA to play at their pace, keeping up the intensity on the defensive end of the floor and forcing some bad Wolfpack looks as a result.
“Defense is what we preach all year,” Paczewski said. “We know they have a lot of shooters on their team, we know they’re going to be fast … we knew we had to come shut them down.”
Kaprie Cottle had 10 for WBA and David Jannuzzi was held to just six points after exploding for 25 against the Warriors in the semifinals.
“We played pretty much the same game as we did in the first two games, we just made shots and played better defense tonight,” said Dallas coach Mark Belenski. “We’re peaking at the right time, we took care of the ball and we played great defense.”
This marks the second WVC championship win in three years for Dallas after falling in the championship game against Holy Redeemer last year.
WVC Boys Basketball Championship
Dallas 61, Wilkes-Barre Area 46
DALLAS (61) — Nocito 2 2-2 6, Faux 0 2-2 2, Paczewski 8 0-0 18, Cumbo 7 0-0 16, Williams 7 1-2 15, Dale 1 0-0 2, Zapoticky 1 0-0 2, Flanagan 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 5-6 61.
WILKES-BARRE AREA (46) — Cottle 4 2-2 10, Jannuzzi 1 4-4 6, Laybourn-Boddie 7 0-0 17, Keating 2 0-0 4, Garrett 1 0-1 2, Brown 2 1-4 5, Egbeto 1 0-2 2, Valentin 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 7-13 46.
Dallas`18`11`15`17 — 61
Wilkes-Barre Area`14`8`9`15 — 46
Three-point goals — DAL 4 (Cumbo 2, Paczewski 2); WBA 3 (Laybourn-Boddie 3).
