By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
SCRANTON – When Abington Heights tied the game with 50 seconds left in overtime, Scranton immediately began preparing to take the final shot of the game.
Arvel Chandler made sure the Knights got two.
Chandler tipped in his own miss with two seconds remaining Monday night to lift host Scranton to a 53-51 victory in a Lackawanna League Division 1 boys first-place battle.
The win broke a tie for the lead, put the Knights up a game with one to play, and clinched no worse than a tie for first place for the defending champions.
Up to two teams could still tie Scranton for first place and force a playoff.
Scranton Prep, which stayed in contention with an 82-52 blowout win at Honesdale Friday night, can create a tie by repeating its earlier victory when it plays at Scranton Wednesday.
If Scranton Prep wins, Abington Heights has a chance to rejoin the first-place tie by winning at North Pocono in its Wednesday finale.
For now at least, Scranton is alone in first place.
The Knights got there by breaking the tie in the game and the standings on Chandler’s game-winner.
Bryce Florey had converted a Ryan Nealon feed into a 51-51 tie with 50 seconds left.
Without coming close to attacking the basket, Scranton worked the clock down to 11.4 seconds and called timeout to set up the final play.
“As good as they are and with the playmakers they have, they run good offensive sets and they’re tough to defend, so if we can get the last shot, we’re going to take it,” Scranton coach Tony Battaglia said.
Coming out of the final timeout, Abington Heights went with pressure defense and had Scranton in trouble in a trap at midcourt.
That left Chandler wide open under the basket. When the Knights escaped the trap, Josh Williams, positioned at the top of the key, received the ball and immediately relayed it to Chandler.
Mason Fedor from Abington Heights scrambled back, racing into position to alter Chandler’s first layup attempt.
“He was coming fast,” Chandler said. “I didn’t want to get blocked because then time would have run out. So, I tried to pump fake him, but then I realized there wasn’t much time left, so I went up real quick and I missed it.”
Fedor flew by past the baseline and the hurried attempt left Chandler in the best rebounding position, particularly when the miss bounced right back to him.
“I just relocated the ball, went up really fast and it happened to go in,” Chandler said.
There were stretches early when Scranton did not seem like it would need any late-game heroics against an Abington Heights team that rallied in the standings by bringing a seven-game winning streak into the game.
The Knights led by 12 in the first quarter and 13 in the second before Ryan Nealon shot the Comets back into the game by firing over the zone from long distance.
Nealon, who finished with a game-high 20 points, was 5-for-9 on 3-pointers, hitting from 27, 25, 23 and 22 feet. The only time he hit while positioned at the arc was a shot from the left corner in which he drew contact and converted it into a four-point play.
“You’ve got to go out there and now that opens up the high post and the low post,” Battaglia said. “But, they’re capable of hitting those shots. I’ve seen it on film many times this year.”
Jason Shields, who had 6 assists and 2 blocked shots, and A.J. Dinterman, who made 3 steals, led Scranton with 16 points each.
Williams did not miss a shot while adding 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Fedor and Bryce Florey came off the bench to join Nealon in turning the game around.
Fedor had 17 points and 5 assists. Florey had eight points, a game-high nine rebounds and two blocks.
Shields started and finished strong. He went 3-for-3 with two 3-pointers to score the game’s first eight points and send Scranton on its way to leads of 15-3 late in the first quarter and 21-8 early in the second.
After Abington Heights surged in front, 40-33, early in the fourth, Shields created the only two ties of regulation on an 18-footer with 2:55 left to cap a 9-2 run, then on a tough drive down the middle with 29 seconds remaining to force overtime at 47-47.
Shields then put the Knights ahead twice, hitting both ends of a one-and-one early in and again midway through overtime.
Scranton is 10-2 in the division and 18-2 overall. The Knights, ranked second among Big Schools in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, is 18-2 overall and leading the race for the top seed in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional.
Fifth-ranked Abington Heights is 9-3, 14-6 and in third place in the seeding race for the District 2 Class 5A tournament.
