Dunmore\u2019s 72-67 win over the top-ranked host Riverside<\/a> on Tuesday night in a much-anticipated Lackawanna League Division II showdown between two teams with high expectations and lofty goals this season.<\/p>\n\u201cOur biggest thing was that we showed maturity,\u201d Clark said. \u201cHonestly, this group has been playing together for a while now, and we have been building toward this season, and we have had a lot of close games not go our way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nice that we finished the job right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dunmore (10-1 overall, 3-0 in division) is the first team to counter the high-powered scoring and talent of Riverside\u2019s Nico Antoniacci and Brayden Rose.<\/p>\n
The Vikings\u2019 tag team had their usual highlight-reel plays. Rose displayed a series of jump stops and crafty athletic moves in the lane for 31 points. Antoniacci started the game with an emphatic dunk, drained a couple of deep 3-pointers, and finished with 28 points.<\/p>\n
The Bucks, however, never lost their poise.<\/p>\n
Throughout the first half, Dunmore built leads, stunning the Vikings, who have run opponents out of the gym in the opening 16 minutes during their 10-game win streak to start the season.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter, after shaking off the energy created by Antoniacci\u2019s dunk, which sent fans into a frenzy, Canavan knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as the Bucks built a 15-12 advantage.<\/p>\n
Carter Sload and Clark hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 surge that resulted in a 23-15 lead midway through the second quarter. Dunmore also received a jolt from sophomore guard Carter Coyle, who swished a pair of 3-pointers as the Bucks took a 33-28 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose felt really great,\u201d Coyle said. \u201cGoing against Nate Aviles, Carter Sload, Jimmy Clark and Brayden Canavan in practice gets you ready and translates to the game. When I shot them, they looked good, and they went in. It was really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunmore kept staving off Riverside\u2019s attacks. Jacob Costanzo converted a three-point play, and Aviles and Clark kept answering Rose and Antoniacci in a game that morphed into a back-and-forth slugfest between two talented teams.<\/p>\n
Riverside (10-1, 2-1), fueled by Rose and Antoniacci, who were relentless on offense, made a run and seized a 55-50 lead late in the third quarter. Aviles kept the Bucks within striking distance with a 3-pointer in the waning seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed a lot of poise,\u201d Aviles said. \u201cWe worked really hard for this. Our second group really pushed us in practice to get ready for this game. We practiced a situation where we were down 10, and we had to work to come back, and that paid off for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hit us hard, but we hit back harder, fought, and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tension continued to mount with each possession. Clark and Sload, who finished with nine points, gave Dunmore a 61-59 lead with 5:07 remaining. Canavan and Aviles kept responding to every make by Rose and Antoniacci, and the teams were deadlocked at 65-65 with 2:45 to play.<\/p>\n
Following a series of timeouts, Costanzo powered to the basket for a layup, and Canavan made a pair of free throws. Rose converted a layup in traffic, but Canavan made one of two free throws for a 70-67 lead. Antoniacci launched a 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds that caromed into the corner. Clark iced the game by making a pair of free throws with 5.7 seconds remaining, and the Dunmore student section stormed the court for a wild celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis felt good,\u201d Canavan said. \u201cWe have been waiting for this. Some people may call this an upset, but I think we were two evenly matched teams. We played hard and played like a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a senior, this means a lot to me. We worked hard all offseason to get ready for games like this. It is my first win over Riverside in my three years as a starter. We earned it on the road, against the odds, and we played a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAYLOR \u2014 Fans crammed into the bleachers, the intensity reached a fever pitch, and two determined teams battled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-80341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80341","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=80341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}