WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The more Scranton kept trying to press, the more points kept piling up for Blake Masker.
Brandon Hall, Saquan Portee or one of his other teammates would find Masker standing all alone under the basket, and whip a 30-foot pass to him for an easy layup.
Basket hanging, was he?
“I guess,” Masker said sheepishly, “I was just in the right spot.”
Finally, so is Wilkes-Barre Area.
Masker scored 19 points Saturday, Hall finished with 10 and the team’s cohesiveness led the program’s first District 2/4 Class 6A boys basketball title — along with a Gatorade shower for Wolfpack coach Pat Toole after a smooth 62-45 victory over Scranton in the district gold medal game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“Let me tell you,” a grinning and wet Toole said of the bucket dumping, “I’ll take it any time.”
The 16-10 Wolfpack will surely accept more performances like the one the team put together against Scranton as it heads into the PIAA Class 6A Tournament hunt, beginning with next Saturday’s opening-round game against District 1 No. 7 seed Pennridge.
Wilkes-Barre came out blazing, as Portee swished a 3-pointer and Matt Egidio buried two more treys in succession, leaving the Wolfpack with a 15-6 lead that bumped up to 10 points by the end of the first quarter when Masker hit a foul shot.
“Matt Egidio and Saquan hitting threes early in the game really opened it up for us,” Toole said.
Masker and Hall took care of the rest.
Jordan Diggs made a layup, Jack Gilgallon made two free throws and Portee tossed in a layup off a breakaway as Wilkes-Barre scored the first six points of the second quarter and had its crowd going wild with a 22-6 lead.
Scranton fought back within eight points on consecutive 3-pointers from Jason Shields later in the quarter.
But Masker answered with a couple of quick buckets inside and Wilkes-Barre took a 28-16 lead into halftime.
“We knew they were going to press,” Masker said. “And we knew they were going to go zone. That’s what a lot of teams did against us.
“We were ready.”
All night long.
Scranton closed within seven points when John Rose hit a 3-pointer 80 seconds into the second half. Four points and some smooth passing and dribbling by Hall kept the Knights from inching any closer, but the Scranton stayed within seven until almost the end of the third quarter.
Almost.
On a broken play after Wilkes-Barre ran down the clock, Gilgallon picked up a ball that was drifting away and banged a 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer.
A double-digit lead was restored for the Wolfpack and Scranton never came closer than eight points again.
Masker made sure of it, scoring his final 10 points in the final quarter, including eight on four baskets in the game’s last five minutes.
The only tasks left for the Wolfpack was, first, collecting the first gold medal for the first-year merger of sports programs from Coughlin, Meyers and GAR, and then delivering the shower of celebration to Toole.
“I’ll be very honest, I’d by lying if I said I didn’t feel any pressure,” said Toole, who last picked up a District 2 gold medal four years ago while coaching Meyers, “with the success our fall sports teams had.
“The (boys) soccer team won a district championship, the field hockey team won a district championship, the football team won a league title and played for a district championship. For a team that was 5-8 at one point, these kids could have checked it in for the season. We’ve now won 11 of 13 games.”
And they can now put their names on another District 2 championship banner for the Wolfpack.
“I’m psyched,” Masker said. “Nobody thought we could do this.
“It feels amazing.”
District 2/4 Class 6A Championship
Wilkes-Barre Area 62, Scranton 45
SCRANTON (45) — John Rose 5 2-2 13, Kevin Lazdowsky 1 2-4 5, Jason Shields 7 4-6 21, AJ Dinterman 2 0-0 4, Noah Leety 1 0-0 2, Patrick McCormack 0 0-0 0, Arvel Chandler 0 0-0 0, Anthony Keys 0 0-0 0, Marty Crofton 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 8-12 45.
WILKES-BARRE AREA (62) — Saquan Portee 3 0-0 8, Cole Walker 1 6-8 8, Matt Egidio 2 0-0 6, Brandon Hall 4 2-4 10, Blake Masker 9 1-2 19, Jack Gilgallon 2 2-2 7, Jordan Diggs 1 0-0 2, Talee Swinney 1 0-0 2, Adamis Pena 0 0-0 0, Jean Rodriguez 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 11-16 62.
Scranton`6`10`14`15 — 45
Wilkes-Barre`16`12`12`22 — 62
Three-point goals — SCR 5 (Shields 3, Rose, Lazdowsky); WB 5 (Portee 2, Egidio 2, Gilgallon).
