NEPA Sports Nation

Laybourn-Boddie leads Invaders past Knights to complete sweep

By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com

SCRANTON – Evan Laybourn-Boddie scored 20 points, dished out 6 assists and made 5 steals Wednesday night as West Scranton completed a comeback and a season sweep of Scranton with a 62-53, Lackawanna League Division 1 boys basketball victory at the Lackawanna College Student Union.

West Scranton used quick starts to the third and fourth quarters to improve to 5-4 in the league, tying Scranton Prep for third place in Division 1. The Invaders are 10-8 overall.

Scranton fell to 3-6 and 6-10 despite 23 points by Oliver Almonte.

The Knights led by six at halftime before four different players had baskets in an 8-0 start the Invaders for a 29-27 lead.

“In the third quarter, I thought we got better shots and Evan got into a better groove,” West Scranton coach Mike Fazzi said. “Our defense was pretty decent, too.”

Dillon Lazdowsky answered with a 3-pointer and the teams traded the lead 11 times in less than 5 minutes through the middle of the third quarter.

Chris Ogden put West Scranton ahead to stay, 41-39, with a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:48 left in the third. He followed that up with a basket on the fastbreak 22 seconds later.

The Knights were within two after scoring the first point of the fourth quarter.

Laybourn-Boddie answered with a 3-pointer and a drive for the first five points of a 6-0 run to a 50-42 lead.

Ogden finished off the win by going 7-for-10 from the line in the last 2:29.

Tristan Lee had seven points in West Scranton’s 23-14 third quarter. He finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots.

“He’s a physical force for us,” Fazzi said. “He’s averaging a double-double for us and he’s come a long way this year.”

Ogden scored all 12 of his points in the last 10 minutes. He also finished with three assists and three steals.

Lazdowsky went 3-for-5 from 3-point range while scoring 13 points for Scranton.

Rykeese Cenord, a 5-foot-9 guard, had seven rebounds in the first nine minutes. He finished with a game-high 10 as Scranton had a 27-22 advantage on the boards, including 22-13 in the first three quarters.

Scranton made its first four shots to run out to a 9-2 lead. Lazdowsky’s 3-pointer accounted for the first of three times the Knights led by seven in the first half before settling for a 27-21 lead at the break.

“They started real well,” Fazzi said. “It was 9-2 before we blinked. I wasn’t happy in the second quarter when they were getting two and three shots and I just thought they had way more energy than us at times.”

Laybourn-Boddie then ran an offense worked at peak efficiency in the second half. The Invaders mixed pushing the pace in transition with Laybourn-Boddie’s ballhandling breaking down the defense in half-court situations as they shot 70 percent (14-for-20) while committing just four turnovers in the 41-point second half.

“He settled down,” Fazzi said. “ … The last few weeks, he really realized how to play with the lead a little better.

“He had the ball in his hands a lot. We created some space for him. He found some shooters and his percentages from 2 are a lot higher than from 3, so we want him to get in the paint as much as he could and then try to find those other guys.”

Laybourn-Boddie was 1-for-6 from 3-point range, including 0-for-3 in the first half, but he was 7-for-9 from inside the arc.

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