By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
PLAINS TWP. – Isaiah Stull was there when Team Lunger built a lead that it would hold for more than 37 minutes to end the game.
And, when Zach Perta mounted the most serious challenge to that lead late, it was Stull who responded to finish off a 129-120 victory over Team Guido in the boys game to complete the 54th annual Dr. George P. Moses Wyoming Valley Conference Senior All-Star Classic at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
Wyoming Seminary’s Stull and Holy Redeemer’s Perta were the high scorers for each team and were also selected as their team’s Most Valuable Players.
“I’ve been around Zach for a long time,” said Stull of his one-time AAU teammate. “I’ve seen him make a million shots before, so when he got hot, I knew I had to match it.”
At one point, they combined to hit five straight 3-pointers, with Perta hitting first and last as they alternated long-distance strikes on opposite ends of the floor.
“He started going at me; I started going at him,” Perta said. “It was a great feeling for one of my last high school basketball games.”
Perta, who finished with 28 points, gave Team Guido its only two leads on drives for 2-0 and 4-2 advantages.
Darius Wallace, the WVC Division 1 Player of the Year from Dallas, scored 7 of Team Lunger’s first 10 points. Seconds after Wallace’s 3-pointer put the team ahead to stay, Stull buried another 3-pointer for an 8-4 lead.
The lead grew as high as 14 in the first half and ballooned to 84-66 when Stull made a steal and scored early in the second half.
Ben Chilson restored the game’s biggest lead on a baseline dunk off a feed from Tunkhannock teammate Drew Macko after Macko secured an offensive rebound. The dunk made it 114-96 with 4:35 left.
An 8-0 burst that took just 44 seconds began bringing Team Guido back. Wilkes-Barre Area’s Brandon Benjamin hit a 3-pointer, Hanover Area’s Sedrick Beasley scored off a feed from Holy Redeemer’s Jeff Kozerski and Perta hit a 3-pointer with 3:36 left.
That was the first 3 of 17 points Perta scored in less than three minutes. He hit four 3-pointers in 1:06, added a layup, then made a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left to cut the deficit to 124-120.
“We made it fun, but we still wanted to win this game,” Perta said.
Stull answered with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to seven and Team Guido did not score again.
It was the last of three times that Stull immediately answered Perta’s 3-pointer with one of his own.
Perta had 21 of his points in the second half, going 5-for-6 from beyond the arc in his late outburst.
Stull, who missed the second half of the season with an injury, made three of his last four shots and scored 14 points in the second half.
“It was fun to get one last high school game in,” he said.
Team Lunger, coached by Tunkhannock’s Spencer Lunger, had players from Crestwood, Wyoming Valley West and Berwick in addition to Wyoming Seminary, Dallas and Tunkhannock.
Team Guido, coached by Holy Redeemer’s Paul Guido, had players from Pittston Area, Wyoming Area, Nanticoke and Hazleton Area along with Holy Redeemer, Hanover Area and Wilkes-Barre Area.
Team Lunger placed six scorers in double figures.
Wallace had 17 points, Tunkhannock’s Dylan Mateus 16, Wyoming Valley West’s Zach Konopke 13 and Crestwood’s Drew Sechleer and Wyoming Valley West’s Emmanuel Lewis 11 each.
Konopke and Brandon Burbacnk from Crestwood each grabbed nine rebounds while Lewis, Mateus and Dallas’ Michael Bufalino had eight. Bufalino also had a game-high six assists.
Team Guido had five double-figures scorers.
Benjamin started the game 4-for-5 on 3-pointers and finished with 21 points. Waarithi Oseni from Wilkes-Barre Area and Ibn Jordan-Thomas from Nanticoke each scored 14 points while Elijah Noe from Hanover Area had 13.
Oseni had a game-high 14 rebounds while Jordan-Thomas got to the offensive boards for 6 of his 9 rebounds.
Jordan-Thomas also had four assists, three steals and a block.
Perta made a game-high four steals.
Notes
Lunger received the Sportsmanship Award from the WVC Basketball Officials.
Jack O’Donnell from Dallas, who was not part of the game roster, defeated Burbank, 9-4, in the final of the 3-Point Shooting Contest, which began during practice for the game.
O’Donnell went 3-for-5 from the top of the key and again from the left corner in the last two stops during the 45-second shootout. He was 7-for-15 and picked up bonus points by hitting his last attempt from each of the last two spots.
Pittston Area’s Anthony Cencetti did not play in the second half. He left the gym with an ice pack on his left ankle.
