The Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball championship will be decided Monday when Wilkes-Barre Area and Dallas play at 7 p.m. at Wyoming Area High School.
WBA and Dallas finished tied at 9-3 in the division. WBA is 14-8 overall while Dallas is 15-7.
Both teams will advance to the WVC Tournament on Thursday at Hazleton Area High School. The winner will play the Division 2 runner-up, which based on the current District 2 power rankings will be Holy Redeemer, at 7:30 p.m. The loser plays Division 2 champion Wyoming Area at 6 p.m.
The Division 1 championship game and the WVC Tournament games will have no bearing on the District 2 power rankings, which are used to determine seedings for the district tournaments. The power rankings are based solely on regular-season games.
The teams split their two regular-season games.
Dallas posted a wire-to-wire 57-49 victory on Jan. 7 at Wilkes-Barre Area. The Mountaineers launched in five 3-pointers in the first quarter on the way to building a 21-9 lead. The Wolfpack moved within four midway through the third quarter, only to have Dallas bump its lead to double-digits early in the fourth.
Jude Nocito had 14 points, Jack Dale had 13 and Tyce Mason added 12 for Dallas. David Jannuzzi had 20 and Mike Keating had 13 for WBA.
WBA prevailed 53-44 in the rematch on Jan. 28. The score was tied twice in the fourth quarter. WBA scored the game’s final nine points. Jannuzzi led WBA with 22 points. Jude Nocito and Joey Nocito each had 11.
Jannuzzi entered Saturday’s game with Wyoming Valley West leading Division 1 in scoring with a 20.9 average. He and Keating (14.9 ppg) lead the division in free-throw shooting, with each hitting at 86.7%. Jannuzzi has 41 3-pointers, while Jacob Johnson had 39.
Jude Nocito leads Dallas with a 15.9 scoring average. His 52 3-pointers are second most in the division. Pat Flanagan is averaging 11.0 points.
