By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
In a season all about changes in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, the Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack needed some changes to turn around a debut season that was headed in the wrong direction.
Brandon Hall points to a series of alterations in the Wolfpack’s approach as keys to reversing the direction of a team that lost four straight in non-league play, then began the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys basketball schedule with a 2-3 record.
“After our second loss to Pittston, we made a few changes in our sets and that’s when we knew we could pull off a run,” Hall said. “ … The new sets that we had opened up a lot of great shots, layups and easy baskets at the rim.”
That is not all that changed before the Wolfpack won eight of its final nine regular-season games to wind up in a four-way tie for first place in the division.
“We changed our defense, too, because we had to get out on shooters better and we changed the tempo of the game,” Hall said. “We went up the court fast to get the game going.”
There was no choice in one last change.
The Wolfpack spent most of the last week playing without center Blake Masker, the team’s third-leading scorer.
Hall made sure Wilkes-Barre Area got through, making perhaps the shot of the season in District 2 basketball on the night Masker got hurt, then putting together a monster game in his absence to beat two of the other title contenders.
For his efforts, Hall was selected PNC Bank District 2 Boys Basketball Player of the Week for the time period of Feb. 3-9.
Hall made a steal with two seconds left in a tie game, quickly moved across midcourt and soared through the air while launching a game-winning 35-footer in a 51-48 victory over Crestwood Feb. 4 to begin the week.
When Wilkes-Barre Area’s Saquan Portee knocked the ball loose above the top of the key while Crestwood was holding for the game’s final shot, Hall said he got a quick glimpse at the time on the clock as the ball was bouncing his way.
“I shot it so high and I kept my hand in the air and I felt like it was good,” said Hall, who was piled on by teammates and students in the middle of the Crestwood court after hitting the winning shot. “The reason I took my dribble was I tried to get in the middle at the half-court line, so I could shoot a straight-forward jump shot.”
The win was the second straight against one of the other teams that ultimately finished in the four-way tie. It set up a meeting against Hazleton Area, the defending champion that was still in first place.
The Wolfpack faced the Cougars without Masker, so Hall took on extra duties.
Hall scored 26 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in the 60-46 victory.
“We lost our big and a lot of rebounds,” said Hall, a 6-foot-3½ forward. “So, I knew had to crash the boards more often and I knew that me and Cole (Walker), our two leading scorers, had to put up more numbers with our third scorer out.”
The third game of the week was a relative breather.
When Wilkes-Barre Area raced out to a double-figures lead in the first quarter against last-place Berwick, coach Pat Toole reduced Hall’s minutes in a 56-35 victory. Hall still contributed 10 points while missing only one shot to finish the week with 48 points in 3 games.
Hall has been one of the big reasons the Wolfpack eventually found success in its first season combining students from Coughlin, GAR and Meyers into one team in anticipation of becoming one school in the future.
For the regular season, Hall averaged 12.4 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks. His only two 3-pointers were half-court buzzer shots against Crestwood, one for the win, the other in a one-point overtime loss.
Hall is hoping this will not be his final season.
After playing middle school basketball at the Renaissance School for the Arts in New York City, he played high school basketball as a freshman there. He sat out his sophomore season, moved to Wilkes-Barre and repeated his sophomore year in school while playing on the Coughlin basketball team.
Now a junior academically at Coughlin, Hall is currently considered to be completing his eligibility, but he said he is getting help with an appeal to try to gain an additional season from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Brandon lives in Wilkes-Barre. He is the son of Julian Hall and Arleak Bell.
Ryan Petrosky from Crestwood and Jackson Shafer from Delaware Valley were also considered for the award.
Petrosky had 54 points in a 2-1 week that put the Comets in the WVC Division 1 playoff. His 28-point, 6-rebound, 3-assist, 3-steal effort against Pittston Area allowed Crestwood to bounce back strong from the loss at the buzzer against Wilkes-Barre.
Shafer had 61 points as the Warriors split a pair of Lackawanna League Division 2 games.
