By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
SCRANTON – Scranton’s starting lineup made double figures routine in the stat columns when the Lynett Memorial Tournament opened Monday.
While Jason Shields was posted the first triple-double of his career, Joshua Williams was adding to Scranton’s rebounding dominance with a double-double and every starter scored at least 10 points in a 71-60 victory over Dunmore.
The win advanced Scranton into Wednesday’s 7 p.m. final against Scranton Prep, a 54-40 winner over Holy Cross, at the Lackawanna College Student Union.
Scranton outrebounded Dunmore, 44-24, including 38-16 heading into the final 5:48.
“I think the number-one factor in their success tonight was the way they outrebounded us,” Dunmore coach Kevin Clark said. “That’s too big of a margin for a team like this. We needed it to be much closer.”
Shields and Williams were the biggest reasons it wasn’t.
While Shields piled up 19 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Williams had 14 points and 11 assists.
A.J. Dinterman also scored 14 points while Arvel Chandler had 11 points and 6 assists and Fuquan Hart had 10 points.
Shields was already responding to Dunmore’s half-court defensive approach and using his tendency to turn defensive rebounds into long outlet passes to build an assist count when he learned during a timeout that he was one assist away from a triple-double. Setting up a teammate one more time was not a problem as he drove, drew even more attention and slipped a pass to Williams.
“Dunmore played me the toughest in terms of straight not wanting me to shoot the ball at all,” said Shields, the reigning Lackawanna League Division 1 Player of the Year, according to NEPABasketball.com. “Getting face-guarded up and down the court 94 feet every play gets to be a little much, but I think I handled it well and made plays for my team the best I could.”
Dunmore combined that defensive approach with the 3-point shooting of Adriel DeNaples, the game’s leading scorer, to give unbeaten Scranton trouble well into the third quarter.
DeNaples made his first six 3-point attempts and added a three-point play on the way to 26 points. His fifth 3-pointer, 1:10 into the second half, gave the Bucks their biggest lead, 36-32.
“I thought overall we did a good job on executing our game plan,” Clark said. “I thought we took a couple of poor shots, but overall it was the best we shot all season.”
DeNaples, who finished with seven 3-pointers, used his sixth to keep Dunmore within 42-41 midway through the third quarter.
By then, however, the Knights had started what grew into a 25-8 run.
Dinterman responded to the sixth DeNaples 3-pointer with 10 points in less than 4½ minutes, starting with a 3-pointer and ending with a steal and breakaway for a 62-46 lead with 5:59 left.
“We’ve been dealing with COVID for a couple days and our last actual game was almost two weeks ago,” said Scranton coach Tony Battaglia, whose No. 1 Big School team in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams was still operating without two of its top six players. “We had to knock some of the rust off early.
“We got through some of that with hard work, rebounding the ball and some little things that kept us in striking distance after the first half.”
Nico Ruggiero, who had 10 assists, and Kevin Walsh added 8 points each for Dunmore.
The Bucks (4-3) play Lackawanna League Division 3 rival Holy Cross (3-3) in Wednesday’s 2:30 p.m. consolation game.
Scranton Prep 54, Holy Cross 40
Robert Rossi and Noah Sorenson scored 13 points each to lead Scranton Prep into its ninth straight Lynett Tournament championship game.
The game was a rematch of the 2019 final that Holy Cross won.
Scranton Prep had won six straight titles from 2013 through 2018, when it also played Holy Cross for the title. The Cavaliers have won a record 22 titles in the tournament, which was first played in 1951.
The Cavaliers dominated around the basket.
Scranton Prep had advantages of 38-19 on the boards, 20-6 in second-chance points and 16-6 on points in the paint.
James Pettinato went 4-for-5 while scoring 10 points and joined the two top scorers in leading the Cavaliers on the glass. Rossi had seven rebounds while Sorensen and Pettinato pulled down six each.
Rossi was limited to 19 minutes because of foul trouble, but finished strong with 9 points, including a powerful dunk, to help Scranton Prep pull away in the fourth quarter.
The Cavaliers scored the game’s first seven points and shot out to an 11-2 lead.
They led 27-17 at halftime and were outscored in one quarter, by a single point in the third when the Crusaders pulled within 40-31.
Hayden Hosie led Holy Cross with 17 points, 3 assists and 2 steals. Logan Tierney added nine points and a team-high six rebounds.
