H.S. Boys Basketball: Big third quarter sends Nanticoke Area to state playoffs
Mar. 2—NANTICOKE — Gavin Turak's job description changed in the third quarter Wednesday night, and suddenly Nanticoke Area's defensive stopper became its best offensive weapon.
Turak scored 13 of his game-high 21 points in the period as Nanticoke Area wiped out a small deficit on the way to a 56-48 victory over Tunkhannock in the District 2 Class 4A boys basketball third-place game.
"The thing people don't realize about Gavin is night in, night out he's guarding the best player on the court," Nanticoke Area coach Zach Pientka said. "He was going against (Ben) Chilson and Chilson had what, 18 points. Gavin not only guarded him the whole damn game, he got his points as well."
Nanticoke Area (17-9) will play in the state playoffs on Friday, March 10. The Trojans, who last made the state playoffs three years ago, will play the District 11 runner-up. Allentown Central Catholic (16-8) and Bethlehem Catholic (16-8) play for the D11 championship Friday night.
Tunkhannock finished its season at 13-12, once again missing out on an elusive state tournament berth. The Tigers last qualified for states in 1993.
Chilson and Dylan Mateus were among the top 3-point shooters in the Wyoming Valley Conference this season, but they combined for just three field goals behind the arc. Three-point shooting was a staple of the Tigers' offense all season, yet they finished 6-of-22 (27%) Wednesday night.
"It was a challenge on me and a challenge I wanted," Turak said of guarding Chilson. "Then I got the technical and got four fouls and had to move off him. I played pretty good defense on him the first two quarters, but the last two I was drained."
Turak's 21 points — second only to a 23-point performance against Wyoming Valley West in the fourth game of the season — were part of an odd offensive performance by Nanticoke Area.
Only two other Trojans scored. Jaidyn Johnson, the WVC Division 2 scoring champ, had 19. Ibn Jordan-Thomas had 16 to go with a game-high 14 rebounds.
Nanticoke Area outscored Tunkhannock 21-6 in the third quarter, turning a four-point halftime deficit into a 35-24 lead entering the fourth quarter. Consecutive assists by Caleb Butczynski led to inside buckets by Jordan-Thomas and Turak for the first double-digit lead of the game.
Tunkhannock cut the deficit to 50-48 with 50 seconds left when Shane Macko scored his only points of the game on a drive.
The Trojans then worked 18 seconds off the clock and probably wanted to drain it more. Jordan-Thomas, though, couldn't turn down a wide-open inside shot to make it a two-possession game.
Johnson finished off the victory with a steal and a dunk with three seconds remaining.
"I was proud of my kids how they came back in the fourth quarter," Tunkhannock coach Spencer Lunger said, "but it was just too little too late."
District 2 Class 4A Third-Place
Nanticoke Area 56, Tunkhannock 48
TUNKHANNOCK (48) — Macko 1 2-2 4, Chilson 6 4-6 18, Brown 4 0-0 9, Yuhas 1 0-1 2, Mateus 4 0-0 9, DeMarco 0 0-0 0, Ergott 2 0-0 6, Madan 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-9 48.
NANTICOKE AREA (56) — Butczynski 0 0-0 0, Turak 8 4-7 21, Mullery 0 0-0 0, Johnson 7 4-6 19, Jordan-Thomas 8 0-0 16, Collins 0 0-0 0, Brogan 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 8-13 56.
Tunkhannock'8'10'6'24 — 48
Nanticoke Area'6'8'21'21 — 56
Three-point goals — TUN 6 (Chilson 2, Ergott 2, Brown, Mateus); NAN 2 (Turak, Johnson)
