By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
J.J. Walsh got started early in the first Pittston Area boys basketball game after the holiday break and he never stopped.
The sophomore guard poured in career-highs of eight 3-pointers and 33 points Friday when the Patriots opened Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 play by breaking a seven-game Dallas winning streak with a 66-59 victory.
“My teammates were just finding me,” Walsh said. “I hit my first two and once you start making a few, you just keep shooting them, it gets you in that rhythm.”
Walsh’s performance makes him the PNC Bank District 2 Boys Basketball Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday.
“They played that zone,” Walsh said. “So, Brennan (Higgins) and I just passed it around up top until one of us got open.
“That seemed to be working, so we stuck with it.”
Walsh has shown the ability to come through early and late this season for the Patriots.
After contributing off the bench last season as a freshman, he leads the Patriots in scoring at more than 15 points per game and in 3-pointers with more than three per game. Walsh’s early exploits – and Pittston Area’s ability to turn back several Dallas comeback attempts – made sure no dramatic finish was needed Saturday.
When called on, however, he has hit two game-winners this season, beginning with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Hanover Area Opening Night and continuing less than two years later with a pair of free throws in the final two seconds. Both times, he took the Patriots from behind to the winning points.
“I didn’t think it would be going this well,” Walsh said. “Last year, I came off the bench, so I knew I was going to have to score a lot more this year.”
After a 1-2 start under new coach Al Semenza, the Patriots have won six out of seven with only a one-point loss at the buzzer against Holy Redeemer during that stretch.
“With the new coach, it’s starting to click now and we’re playing a lot of good defense, too,” Walsh said.
Walsh’s father was a three-year player at Pittston Area and J.J. started playing basketball when he was four. He went to Backcourt Hoops in Scranton in fifth grade to start expanding his game and returned in eighth grade to become part of the JB Hoops AAU team playing for the JB Hoops McGoff Regional team on the U-15 level last season.
J.J. is the son of John and Jennifer Walsh of Pittston.
Two other sophomores, Justice Shoats from Holy Redeemer and Ryan Ruddy from North Pocono, also received consideration for the award.
Shoats scored 42 points, leading Holy Redeemer in both games when the Royals won their league opener against Wyoming Area, then knocked off defending state Class A champion Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter the next day. Ruddy went 10-for-14 to finish with 20 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals when North Pocono broke West Scranton’s eight-game winning streak in a Lackawanna League opener.
