By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
PLAINS TWP. – The standings at the end of the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 season said that Dallas and Hazleton Area were on even terms.
The Mountaineers proved otherwise in the playoffs.
Dallas won a playoff game over Hazleton Area for the second time in five days when Austin Finarelli scored 23 points and Jackson Wydra put on a mid-range shooting display while adding 19 in a 73-46 rout in the WVC Tournament championship game at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
“They were playing a little triangle-and-two on us,” Finarelli said of a Hazleton Area defense designed to stop him and backcourt partner Nick Nocito. “So, they were kind of leaving (Wydra) open.
“If you leave him open, he’s going to make shots and he did great for us tonight.”
The Mountaineers also won, 58-39, Tuesday when the teams met at Pittston Area in a playoff to determine the division champion.
After beating the two Division 2 entries in Thursday’s semifinals of the conference tournament, the teams got back together Saturday night, giving Dallas one more chance to emphasize its superiority in the series.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Dallas coach Mark Belenski said. “They know us; we know them. It’s hard-nosed basketball.
“We go one quarter at a time.”
Belenski was quick to accurately note that the Mountaineers won 12 of the 16 quarters between the two teams this season.
That included the last seven after falling behind at the quarter in the division title game.
Dallas put together surges of dominance in each quarter Saturday with only one ending up close.
The Mountaineers scored the last eight points of the first quarter, followed by a 15-5 start to the second quarter for what merged into a 23-5 run. After closing the third quarter on a 16-4 run, Dallas scored the game’s last 11 points.
The only quarter that Dallas did not win by at least seven points was the second when Hazleton Area put together its best flurry of the game to end the half and get within 32-24.
The Cougars continued that surge into the early moments of the second half, cutting the gap to 36-31 before Dallas ran away for good.
Finarelli finished it off with a 10-point fourth quarter and 18 points over the final 13:25, beginning with the basket that halted Hazleton Area’s best stretch of the game.
The Cougars had put together an 18-6 advantage over the last 1:52 of the second quarter and first 2:35 of the third quarter before Finarelli scored on a fastbreak.
Wydra followed with consecutive baskets and the Mountaineers were off and running again.
“We knew he was going to be open in the middle tonight,” Belenski said. “We talked about it and he made his shots. Then, that opens it up for other people.”
Finarelli made his last three shots from the floor and all eight of his free throws.
Wydra shot 9-for-12 from the floor.
“We have great guards passing the ball and they don’t care how many points they have,” Wydra said. “They’re going to get the ball to someone who’s scoring and that’s what they did tonight.”
The scoring leaders also contributed on the boards where Dallas grabbed two out of every three rebounds. The Mountaineers racked up a 44-22 rebounding advantage with Michael Cumbo grabbing eight, Finarelli and Michael Bufalino six each and Wydra five.
Cumbo had 14 points.
Hazleton Area was led by Chris Catrone with 12 points, Josian Guerra with 11 and Eliud Lopez with 10. Khalid Morrieson blocked six shots.
The lead changed hands four times in 1:25 midway through the first quarter before the first Dallas run put the Mountaineers ahead to stay.
Lopez made a 3-pointer for the last Hazleton Area lead, 8-7, with 3:45 left in the quarter.
The rebounding advantage was a factor in turning the course of the game early.
Bufalino scored on a putback, then a baseline jumper in transition before Finarelli tipped in his own miss.
Finarelli took off with a defensive rebound then fed Cumbo, who scored to end the first quarter and start the second, completing a 10-point streak to a 17-8 lead.
Dallas threatened to put the game away in the second quarter.
Finarelli’s 3-pointer made it 24-11, leading to a Hazleton Area timeout with 4:44 left in the half.
Wydra scored consecutive baskets off rebounds, the second coming on a third shot attempt as Dallas grabbed three offensive rebounds in 38 seconds, giving it nine to that point for a 28-13 lead with 3:18 still remaining in the half.
Cumbo added a basket off a Nocito steal and one of Nocito’s six assists before Hazleton Area started fighting back from the 30-13 deficit.
Hazleton Area shot just 7-for-26 (26.9 percent) from 3-point range, but made four in 2:17 to end the first half and start the second.
Luke Gennaro, Lopez and Guerra connected late in the half and Catrone hit on the team’s first possession of the second half.
Belenski called timeout with 6:06 left in the third when Hazleton Area got within five.
Then, Finarelli went to work. He had eight points and Wydra added six in the 16-4 surge to end the third quarter.
“Good teams are always going to make a run,” Finarelli said. “So, we knew we just had to battle it out, fight it out and never give up.
“They wanted to win just as bad as us, but we got it done.”
Hazleton Area scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter, but Finarelli fired off 10 in under 3 minutes, starting a 21-4 closing run that led to the final 2:26 being played by reserves for both teams.
Dallas (21-3) takes a District 2-best, 15-game winning streak, including three victories over Hazleton Area, into the district Class 4A tournament where it is the top seed.
“We worked all year for this,” Wydra said. “ … Now winning three games in a row over a 6A team, when we’re in a 4A, it’s great.”
Hazleton Area (19-6) is the second seed in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional.
