No District 2 basketball team made it to February with a perfect record.
On the last night of January, Wallenpaupack took care of the last unbeaten mark, defeating visiting Scranton, 64-48, in Monday’s meeting of Lackawanna League boys division leaders.
Logan Storm and Landon Calabrese scored 17 points each as Division 2 leader Wallenpaupack bounced back from its first league loss Friday night at Abington Heights to hand Division 1’s Scranton its first defeat of any kind.
Scranton, which is 5-1 in the league and 11-1 overall, remained in sole possession of first place when Abington Heights prevented Scranton Prep from moving into a tie, beating the Cavaliers, 31-30, to move into second place.
Wallenpaupack improved to 7-1 and 13-3. The Buckhorns continued to hold a 1½-game lead over defending champion North Pocono, which defeated Western Wayne, 44-19.
The Buckhorns took charge from the start, opening an 11-5 lead midway through the first quarter, building it to 20-9 at the end of the quarter, then adding the first five points of the second for a 25-9 lead.
Storm had 10 of his points to help Wallenpaupack to a 32-15 lead at the half.
The Buckhorns limited the Knights to one field goal and six points in the second quarter.
Scranton’s Jason Shields, the reigning Lackawanna Division 1 Player of the Year, was held scoreless in the first half before leading Scranton with 13 points.
Shields had six points in an 8-3 start to the second half to cut the deficit to 35-23. He had 10 points during the third quarter, but the Knights never managed to get the margin into single digits and headed to the fourth quarter trailing 45-31.
Wallenpaupack secured the win by going 10-for-14 from the line in the fourth quarter. Calabrese and Jack Smith were each 2-for-2, Justin Blanding was 3-for-4 and Wyatt Peifer was 3-for-6.
The foul shooting helped the Buckhorns offset five 3-pointers by Scranton in the fourth quarter. Rykeese Cenard had 2 of them while scoring 8 of his 11 points. Shields, Arvel Chandler and Paul Gammaitoni had the others.
Calabrese hit three 3-pointers in the win.
Peifer added 15 points and Smith had 10.
Cenard had 11 points.
