{"id":119702,"date":"2026-02-21T06:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119702\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T06:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:12:07","slug":"wyoming-area-falls-to-scranton-prep-in-class-4a-wilkes-barre-citizens-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119702\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyoming Area falls to Scranton Prep in Class 4A \u2013 Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCRANTON \u2013 One moment, etched in his memory, has been motivating Packy Doherty for nearly a year.<\/p>\n

Sitting through a postgame ceremony after receiving a silver medal at the Mohegan Arena following the District 2 Class 4A final last season served as a reminder of the agony that defeat brings in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for him, Doherty had another season.<\/p>\n

Before he can fully exorcise those feelings, the senior captain knows how important it is to be focused at this time of the year. He and his Scranton Prep teammates came out with intensity and powered their way to a 73-47 win over Wyoming Area in the semifinals<\/a> on Friday night at the Xavier Center.<\/p>\n

Scranton Prep (19-5), the No. 2 seed, advanced to the championship game and a showdown with Wyoming Valley Conference champion Dallas (23-3), the No. 1 seed, on Saturday at 4 p.m. Both finalists also qualified for the PIAA Championships.<\/p>\n

It will be Scranton Prep\u2019s ninth appearance in the championship game in 10 years since the PIAA increased to six classifications for the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n

Wyoming Area (21-4) will host fourth-seeded Valley View (18-6) in the District 2 Class 4A third-place game with a berth in the state playoffs on the line. The Cougars lost to Dallas, 46-43, at the buzzer in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one of the main goals throughout the season, especially after losing last year,\u201d said Doherty, who finished with 30 points. \u201cWe kind of took things for granted last year. We are going to do everything we can to get this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The semifinal battle with Wyoming Area was a rematch from last season\u2019s district semifinals.<\/p>\n

In an eerily similar start to the game, Scranton Prep played at a fast pace and built a 22-4 lead. Brody Martin ignited the fast start with a 3-pointer, and Doherty had seven points.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly, my shot wasn\u2019t falling, but I have a lot of confidence in my shooting, and my teammates have confidence in me,\u201d Doherty said.<\/p>\n

Charlie Skoff, who had a couple of starts while Max McGrath was recovering from an injury, came off the bench and battled inside. He provided a three-point play and finished the quarter with a driving layup, and the Cavaliers were in firm control.<\/p>\n

Once in the lead, as the Cavaliers maintained their defensive intensity, the focus shifted to trying to do anything to slow Wyoming Area\u2019s Luke Kopetchny. That was not an easy assignment as the athletic sharpshooter got going in the second quarter with 14 of his team\u2019s 16 points.<\/p>\n

Still, Scranton Prep maintained a 35-20 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

In the third, the Cavaliers\u2019 press forced Wyoming Area to play fast, and it led to eight turnovers. Scranton Prep went on a 12-2 run that re-established an imposing advantage, 48-26.<\/p>\n

Kopetchny had 10 points in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 35.<\/p>\n

\u201cKopetchny is a great player,\u201d Charlie Skoff said. \u201cHe made some great shots. We could have executed a little better. We have some things that we have to clean up and practice, and go from there to get ready for the championship game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2013 One moment, etched in his memory, has been motivating Packy Doherty for nearly a year. Sitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726,729],"class_list":{"0":"post-119702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}