By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Darryl Wright and Zach Perta generally make their first impressions with the speed they bring to the Holy Redeemer defense along with Justice Shoats.
With the District 2 Class 3A boys title on the line Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, they showed the damage they could do on the other end of the floor.
Both guards went 3-for-5 from 3-point range while adding 11 points each to the 16 Shoats scored in a 52-28 rout of Riverside.
“My freshman year, I was really struggling with my jump shot and everybody was sagging off me,” said Wright, a junior guard, who was praised by coach Paul Guido for his off-season work in rectifying that issue. “The whole summer, I worked on my jump shot.
“I’m usually just here to make the team play better, be a playmaker and help everyone else play better.”
Wright made plenty of his own plays this time, hitting three of his first four attempts to give Holy Redeemer a 21-11 halftime lead. The two he made in the second quarter answered Riverside scores.
“We knew they would play some type of packed-in zone … trying to make us shoot from the perimeter,” Guido said. “Those jumpers that Darryl hit were huge.
“They were at the perfect times. They had just made a basket to cut the lead a little bit. They were going to make us work to take some time off the clock.”
Perta took it from there, making all four of his shots – three of them 3-pointers – while scoring his 11 points in a 28-6 third quarter.
“What we talked about at halftime was that clearly those shots were going to be there for us,” Guido said. “It can’t just be Darryl, we’re going to have to hit some.
“Zach hit them and Justice got one. They started hitting in the third quarter and that gave us the balance we were looking for.”
Wright’s 3-pointer to end the first half and Perta’s first two from long range were part of a 19-1 run to a 37-12 lead with 3:31 left in the third quarter.
Shoats and Perta hit consecutive 3-pointers, then Perta drove for the basket that put the game in the Mercy Rule.
Matt Prociak followed with a 10-footer from the right side as Holy Redeemer ran off the last 10 points of the third quarter for a 49-17 lead.
The win gave Holy Redeemer its second title in three years and an extra reward in this season’s slightly altered Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament.
The Royals (21-4) will host Southern Columbia (15-10) in Wednesday’s first round.
“That was something we spoke about as a team,” said Guido, who asked athletic director J.P. Aquilina four times to make sure it was really true that the Royals could play at home. “It’s something that registered with our guys was, ‘hey, if we’re able to capture this championship tonight, we get to play the first round of states in our home gym’.
“That’s a really cool thing.”
Shoats led them there with 16 points, 5 assists, 2 blocked shots and 2 steals.
Wright had four assists and four steals.
Prociak chipped in nine points and seven rebounds.
Anthony Karpinski led Riverside with nine points and six rebounds.
MORE CLASS 3A BOYS COVERAGE
Video highlights: https://www.instagram.com/p/CasLnK6Dj3B/.
Audio broadcast: https://www.meridix.com/event/209924.
Photos: https://nepasportsnation.com/district-2-class-3a-boys-photo-gallery/.
Boxscore: https://nepabasketball.com/2021-22/Playoffs/3ABoysBoxscore.
