SCRANTON – Chris Walsh scored 21 points Saturday night as North Pocono downed West Scranton, 72-61, in a Lackawanna League Division 1-2 boys crossover game at Scranton High School.
The Trojans built a big early lead giving them the necessary cushion to still win comfortably despite losing two starters to injuries during the course of the game and struggling at the foul line in the fourth quarter.
All-star point guard and team scoring leader Ryan Ruddy did not play in the second half and Noah West did not play in the fourth quarter, leaving their status unclear for Monday’s home game against unbeaten Scranton in another Division 1-2 crossover.
Monday’s game will match defending division champions. North Pocono takes 4-1 league and 10-2 overall records into the game.
West Scranton fell to 2-2 and 8-4.
North Pocono built leads of 19-11 after one quarter, 33-24 at halftime and 52-36 going into the fourth quarter.
Walsh scored 10 of his points and Kyle McCullough had a pair of three-point plays during the fourth quarter.
Each scored in the first minute of the fourth when North Pocono built the lead to 59-37.
West Scranton got as close as 65-57 with 1:50 left before McCullough’s second three-point play.
McCullough two free throws in and-one situations were the only ones the Trojans hit while going 2-for-7 in the fourth quarter.
Billy Pabst added 16 points for North Pocono.
Pabst had nine points in the first quarter, including a 3-pointer that began a streak of nine straight points – the last seven of the first quarter and the first two of the second – for a 21-11 lead.
North Pocono’s bench outscored West Scranton’s, 17-8.
McCullough finished with 10 points.
Thomas Thurber provided the other seven, all in the second quarter to help offset nine points by West Scranton’s Brett Miller and get the Trojans to the locker room with a nine-point lead.
A.J. Nemitz, who had seven of his nine points, Walsh and Pabst all hit 3-pointers in the third quarter when North Pocono kept expanding its lead.
West Scranton, playing without scoring leader Tristan Lee, got 18 points each from Miller and Evan Laybourn Boddie and 17 from Antonio Torres.
Laybourn Boddie scored 11 in the second half.
Torres had 10 points in the fourth quarter, giving him 13 in the second half.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ben Magnotta’s reporting contributed to this story.
