<\/p>\n
WILKES-BARRE TWP. \u2014 Perhaps the worst 10 minutes for Dallas on Saturday was when a little boy was on the court trying to make shots to win a prize.<\/p>\n
That halftime break transformed the Mountaineers from a highly efficient offense to one having issues scoring.<\/p>\n
That was just the opening Scranton Prep needed in the District 2 Class 4A boys basketball championship game at Mohegan Arena. <\/p>\n
Led by an incredible offensive showing by sophomore Chicky Skoff, Prep erased a five-point halftime deficit, clamped down on defense and dominated the final two minutes for a 68-52 victory.<\/p>\n
Prep (20-5) will play District 3 third seed Schuylkill Valley (17-9) in the first round of the PIAA state playoffs on Friday. Dallas (23-4) will play District 11 runner-up Allentown Central Catholic (14-11) also on Friday.<\/p>\n
Trailing 15-10 after the first quarter, Dallas ripped off a 28-point second quarter to take a 38-33 halftime lead. Every starter contributed with Tyce Mason scoring seven points, Pat Flanagan scoring six and Kael Berry and Joey Nocito adding five each.<\/p>\n
Then the offense shut down. The Mountaineers scored two points in the third quarter and 14 overall in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, by the time the coaches got in the locker room the kids already had it figured out,\u201d Prep coach Larry Reagan said. \u201cIt was very vocal in there before we got in. We kind of just went in and tried to get them to calm down, reset. Let\u2019s start at zero and work our way back up because that first quarter we played terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skoff compounded Dallas\u2019 offensive woes. Nicknamed by his older brother and teammate Charlie, Skoff \u2014 whose actual first name is Matthew \u2014 scored the first 12 points of the third quarter. His steal led to a basket by Packy Doherty to complete a 14-0 run and give the Cavaliers a 47-38 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just trusted my coaches. They had the perfect game plan,\u201d said Skoff, who finished with a game-high 28 points. \u201cI was just ready. I was ready for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas\u2019 only third-quarter basket came at 1:54 on a spinning inside basket by Flanagan.<\/p>\n
Despite the scoring slump, Berry led a fourth-quarter resurgence that moved Dallas within 49-45 with a little more than a minute gone. The Mountaineers closed the gap to 55-52 on an inside bucket by Talan Geskey with 2:18 remaining, but the offense stalled again. Prep then scored the final 13 points, all but two coming from the foul line.<\/p>\n
Dallas coach Mark Belenski was unavailable after the game.<\/p>\n
District 2 Class 4A Boys Championship <\/p>\n
Scranton Prep 68, Dallas 52 <\/p>\n
SCRANTON PREP (68) \u2014 Chicky Skoff 9 7-8 28, Max McGrath 4 1-1 9, Brody Martin 2 3-7 7, Liam Haggerty 1 0-0 2, Packy Doherty 8 4-5 20, Charlie Skoff 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Doherty 0 0-0 0, Luke Flanagan 0 0-0 0, Alex Scanlon 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 15-21 68. <\/p>\n
DALLAS (52) \u2014 Joey Nocito 1 3-4 6, Tyce Mason 3 3-4 10, Kael Berry 4 0-0 9, Pat Flanagan 6 4-6 18, Talan Geskey 3 0-0 6, Owen Oldt 0 0-2 0, Brady Mizzer 0 0-0 0, Max Scatton 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 10-16 52. <\/p>\n
Scranton Prep`15`18`14`21 \u2014 68 <\/p>\n
Dallas`10`28`2`12 \u2014 52 <\/p>\n
Three-point goals: SP 3 (Skoff). DAL 6 (Nocito, Mason, Berry, P.Flanagan 2, Scatton).<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WILKES-BARRE TWP. \u2014 Perhaps the worst 10 minutes for Dallas on Saturday was when a little boy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-126549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126549","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=126549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}