YATESVILLE – The West Scranton boys basketball team absorbed a harsh lesson during the early portion of the non-league schedule.
A little more than two months later, the Invaders put it to good use.
Chris Ogden scored 24 points Tuesday night as visiting West Scranton knocked defending champion Pittston Area out of the District 2 Class 5A playoffs with a 56-45, quarterfinal upset.
West Scranton let a 23-point, second-half lead get away in a non-league, home-court loss to Pittston Area in December. Needing a win to extend their season, the Invaders took a small lead into the fourth quarter and expertly expanded it, getting Ogden to the line repeatedly to go 11-for-12 in the last eight minutes.
“I thought we played smart at the end,” Invaders coach Mike Fazzi said. “Last time we played them, it was probably the worst loss of my career ever coaching. We’re up 23 points and we wind up losing the game. It’s tough.”
When a close race for seeding position in the middle of the pack in Class 3A left the Invaders with a seemingly tough draw, they made the most of of it.
“Not a lot of times in life do you get redos on stuff you actually want a redo at,” Fazzi said. “We fought.”
And produced a different result.
“It was 42-19,” Fazzi said of the first meeting. “At that time, we were a real young team early in the year.
“We had some terrible shots and bad turnovers and our IQ wasn’t that good yet.”
The bitter defeat may have helped produce the biggest win of the season and give the Invaders a shot at something bigger Friday night against second-seeded Dallas, the team that beat Pittston Area out of the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title this season after playing in the state semifinals last year as a Class 4A team.
“If we didn’t have that loss, I don’t know if we’d be where we are today because it made us look at the big picture,” Fazzi said. “What we were doing wasn’t good enough.”
Zack Price added 14 points in the win.
Evan Laybourn-Boddie chipped in nine, including hitting his two free throws in the fourth quarter to help the Invaders go 14-for-18 in the quarter and 21-for-28 in the game.
Silvio Giardina led the way for Pittston Area with 18 points. Anthony Cencetti added 12.
Giardina had seven points in the first quarter when the Patriots got out to a 13-10 lead. He drove for two baskets to complete a 9-2 finish to the quarter before Cencetti opened the second-quarter scoring with two free throws for Pittston Area’s biggest lead.
The Invaders tied the game, 24-24, at halftime after three lead changes and three ties in the second quarter.
Giardina gave Pittston Area its last lead on a floater in the lane with 7:07 left in the third quarter, but the Patriots scored just one field goal in more than eight minutes.
West Scranton took a 34-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
Pittston Area’s 3-pointers kept things interesting, but West Scranton properly handled its possessions.
Cencetti hit a contested 3-pointer off the dribble from the right wing with 3:42 left to cut the deficit to 39-35.
Giardina’s long 3-pointer with 1:46 left made it 45-40. Paul Jordan McGarry banked another 3-pointer in with 1:02 left to make it 50-45.
Ogden put the game away with six straight free throws, two each with 1:00, 0:49 and :34 left.
Pittston Area ended the season with a five-game losing streak.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was created from the reporting of Paul Gerrity.
