By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
CLARKS SUMMIT – Whether teams make their late free throws is often a determining factor in the outcome of a close game.
How they handled late-game misses at the line wound up deciding Friday night’s Lackawanna League Division 1 boys first-place battle.
Jason Shields and Josh Williams each turned offensive rebounds off of missed free throws into points in the final 17 seconds to help Scranton remain unbeaten by securing a 58-55 victory over host Abington Heights.
“In times like that, championship teams, that’s what they do, they find a way to win,” Shields said, “and I’m just proud of the way we did that tonight.”
Both teams struggled from the line late, but Shields and Williams made sure it did not cost the defending division and District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional champions.
“Josh and (Jason), they never stopped,” said coach Matt Cognetti, who ran the Knights in the absence of head coach Tony Battaglia. “Josh is a dog. He goes after every rebound like it’s his. He gets a lot of those cheap ones that guys aren’t thinking he’s going to crash.
“He gets a lot of big rebounds for us.”
With Scranton clinging to a 54-52 lead, Shields got to a rebound of A.J. Dinterman’s missed front end of a one-and-one and was fouled, putting the Knights into the double bonus with 16.1 seconds remaining.
Shields put Abington Heights in serious trouble, sinking both to make it a two-possession game.
With the win just about sealed, Arvel Chandler wound up at the line with 5.7 seconds left. He missed both, but Williams got to the rebound and powered his way to the basket and six-point lead.
The late offensive rebounds rendered Matt Show’s buzzer-beating 38-footer for Abington Heights harmless.
Scranton, the only unbeaten team in District 2, boys or girls, returned from a COVID-necessitated, 10-day break from competition. The Knights won their closest game to date this season to improve to 3-0 in the division and 8-0 overall.
Abington Heights, also returning from being idle for 10 days, slipped to 2-1 and 7-4.
Show’s final 3-pointer matched teammate Ryan Nealon for five in the game.
The Comets shot 9-for-19 from beyond the arc over the final three quarters to turn an eight-point deficit into a five-point lead.
“When they’re shooting like that, you just have to hope and pray that they miss some so that we can get rebounds and get out and run and get some easy baskets in transition,” Shields said.
After Nealon hit his fifth straight attempt for a 45-40 lead early in the fourth, Rykese Cenord answered with a 3-pointer from the left corner, starting Scranton’s game-deciding, 18-7 run.
Dinterman had six points in the run, joining Cenord and Chandler in hitting 3-pointers in a 4½-minute stretch.
That run and the rebounds of missed free throws allowed Scranton to overcome going 3-for-8 from the line in the final 1:03, matching the numbers Abington Heights put up for the game.
Shields led Scranton, the No. 1 Big School in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 team, with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Dinterman had 16 points and 4 assists. Williams scored 11 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Chandler contributed six points and four assists.
Show finished with 17 points and 3 assists for Abington Heights. Nealon wound up with 16 points and 3 assists.
“We knew Nealon and Show could hit the three,” Cognetti said. “We tried to emphasize that, tried to take it away, make them put the ball on the floor. But, they hit some deep ones; they hit some tough ones and we knew coming up here was going to be a tough game.
“They hit some shots, but we responded. We’re very proud of them.”
Mason Fedor added eight points and two steals while Will Marion dished out five assists and made two steals while both coming off the Abington Heights bench.
Jamison Bessoir had six points and seven rebounds.
Cognetti, who sat out the previous Scranton game, along with Battaglia, found out during the day that he would run a varsity sideline in a game for the first time.
“It was a quick turnaround to get ready for the winningest coach in history,” he said of going against Abington Heights coach Ken Bianchi, who has won a state title and more games than any coach in District 2 history.
The Knights gave the early impression that they might make it easy for him, leading Bianchi to burn a timeout after just 55 seconds when Chandler opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and Williams, who made a steal to assist Chandler, came up with his first putback of the night for a 5-0 lead.
Scranton held Abington Heights without a field goal for the first 5:19 and led 16-8 after one quarter behind eight points by Shields in the last 1:48.
Nealon got started in the final 2:32 of the half, hitting 3-pointers that pulled the Comets within two and one before Scranton made it to the break with a 27-24 lead.
When Nealon hit two more 1:15 apart midway through the third quarter, it keyed and 8-0 run to the first Abington Heights lead, 33-32.
The lead changed hands four times and the teams were tied twice before Scranton pulled out the win.
Chandler’s 3-pointer from the left wing erased the last deficit and gave Scranton a 50-49 lead.
Dinterman’s 3-pointer from the left side with under two minutes remaining broke the final tie and made it 53-50.
The Knights held the Comets without a field goal from 4:40 down to 19.4 seconds left when Fedor scored off a Nealon assist to make it 54-52 and set up the late free throw situations.
