By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
HAZLE TWP. – Hazleton Area bottled up an explosive Holy Redeemer offense Thursday night in the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament boys semifinals.
The Cougars slowed the Royals in transition and clogged up the paint in the half-court game while allowing just 15 points for a stretch of 21:44, covering at least parts of all four quarters on the way to a 50-34 victory.
“I thought we executed on defense very well, helped each other, talked, had a lot of help in the middle,” Hazleton Area coach Tim Barletta said after his team held Holy Redeemer to a season scoring low and nearly 29 points below its average output. “We played their shooters tighter and sagged off some people to have that help in the middle.
“Also, our offense in some ways became our defense because we started getting more and more patient. The more patient we were, I think it frustrated them and it also took time off the clock.”
As a result, an 8-5 lead for Holy Redeemer with 2:59 left in the first quarter turned into a 40-23 lead for Hazleton Area before the Royals scored with 5:16 remaining in the game.
“Their defense just really bothered us,” Holy Redeemer coach Paul Guido said.
Guido said he will have to watch the film to dissect some of the difficulties the Royals had in attacking the Cougars.
“But, give all the credit to Hazleton Area,” Guido said. “It was a great effort by them defensively.”
Josian Guerra scored 11 points and Khalid Morrieson grabbed 10 rebounds to lead a balanced effort that kept Hazleton Area unbeaten at home.
“We worked really hard for this moment and we deserve it,” Guerra said.
The win over the Division 2 champions earned the Cougars a championship game pairing with the Division 1 champions.
Hazleton Area will play for the title Saturday night at 7:30 at Wilkes-Barre Area when it gets another shot at Dallas, the team it lost to, 58-39, Tuesday in a playoff for the Division 1 title.
Playing without starting post player Joe Marshall, the latest in a series of injuries the Cougars have had to overcome on the way to the final, Hazleton Area outrebounded Holy Redeemer, 35-20, and limited the Royals to a single offensive rebound through three quarters.
Eliud Lopez finished with nine points and eight rebounds for Hazleton Area.
“I feel like we moved the ball well, ran our offense really well,” said Morrieson, a 6-foot-7 senior center. “ … We rebounded the ball. This was a really good game for us.”
After Daryl Wright’s three-point play gave Holy Redeemer its 8-5 lead, Hazleton Area tied the game after one quarter on three straight Guerra points.
Chris Papciak, who came off the bench to share team scoring honors of eight points with Justice Shoats, gave Holy Redeemer its last lead on a 15-footer from the left baseline to make it 10-8 with 6:25 left in the half.
Chris Catrone hit a 3-pointer for the lead, then three teammates scored in an 8-0 run to put Hazleton Area up, 16-10.
Gennaro added a 3-pointer to get the Cougars to the break with a 23-16 lead.
Guerra and Gennaro hit two baskets each as Hazleton Area added the first six points of the second half to the last two of the first half.
Once that pushed the lead into double figures, the Cougars never let it go back under 11.
Hazleton Area continued to spread the offense around while outscoring Holy Redeemer, 11-5 in the third quarter and 6-2 to start the fourth for a 40-23 lead on back-to-back, 3-pointers by seldom-used sophomore Junior Coste.
Barletta said the team’s injury issues and Coste’s recent play in junior varsity and practice earned him a shot in the playoff game.
Gennaro finished with nine points, Morrieson with eight, Coste six and Catrone five.
Hazleton Area held Holy Redeemer to 1-for-13 (7.7 percent) shooting from 3-point range and 14-for-42 (33.3 percent) overall.
Holy Redeemer’s first five points came in transition and first eight came from getting to the basket, but it only scored twice in the paint in the nearly 22 minutes that the Royals struggled to produce points.
Hazleton Area, the No. 4 Big School in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, improved to 19-5 overall.
Holy Redeemer, the top-ranked Small School, fell to 19-4 overall and will have more than a week off as it prepares for the District 2 playoffs where it will have the top seed and a first-round bye in Class 3A.
