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WILKES-BARRE — Paul Guido was right: this was not your average run-of-the-mill exhibition game.
With the standing room-only admission and a raucous atmosphere in the tiny confines of the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center gymnasium, the McGrane Holiday Tournament championship game had all the makings of a playoff game.
So, it begs to ask, why would Holy Redeemer not take this seriously?
The Royals won the McGrane championship for the first time in three years with a 44-41 win over Crestwood Thursday in Wilkes-Barre.
“We talked about, in the past, we normally didn’t take the McGrane tournament seriously,” coach Guido said. “It was kind of like two more exhibition games for us. But we wanted to adjust that and take the opportunity to play for a championship.”
Like they had in the first round game against Pittston Area, Holy Redeemer banked on big man Nick Prociak in the paint. With 10 points to his credit, Prociak joined all-time greats like GAR’s Bob Sura, Bishop Hoban’s Bryan Gryboski and Meyers’ Greg Barrouk on the 52nd annual tournament’s Most Valuable Player trophy list.
“I’m really happy to join the big names that were named MVP,” Prociak said. “I’m just really happy we were able to pull out the win. It’s really big for our school moving forward.”
Crestwood’s Mike Palmiero joined Holy Redeemer’s Collin Cook and Joey Judge on the all-tournament team. Pittston Area’s Matt McGlynn and Hanover Area’s Tyler Thomas also received recognition.
Cook led the Royals with 13 points. With six minutes left, J.D. Turosky dished a pass from the paint to Cook for one of his three 3-pointers to take a 42-33 lead.
Crestwood stormed back to make it a one possession game in the closing minutes. Sean Murphy stole a Royal pass and took it coast-to-coast for a layup to cut the deficit to 42-38 with 90 seconds remaining.
Holy Redeemer was unable to take advantage of its trips to the charity stripe in the closing minute. The Comets’ Mike Palmiero made a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds remaining to cut it to a 44-41 deficit.
Crestwood had a chance to tie the game after Prociak was hit with a travel on the inbounds pass. With 2.2 seconds left, Palmiero’s last-chance 3-pointer fell a bit short and the Royals snagged an offensive rebound for the win.
“I told our guys: the fight, the desire to have an opportunity to tie it at the end is a credit to their competitive spirit,” Crestwood coach Mark Atherton said. “They fought hard the whole time.”
Camden Boris was the game’s top scorer. Boris tallied 22 points with three 3-pointers for the Comets.
The Royals’ presence inside forced the Comets to shoot an abundance of shots behind the arc. Crestwood made five 3-pointers for the contest.
“We took too many threes. But their big guys had something to do with clogging the lane,” Atherton added. “It’s one of those games where you lose by three but you miss a ton of 3- pointers. I’m okay with that.”
Holy Redeemer went on an eight-point run in the second quarter that separated the two. Judge made a 3-pointer from the corner to take a 15-12 lead. On the next possession, he arced a pass over a defender to Prociak, who finished in the paint to take a 21-12 advantage with 1:49 left in the first half.
“Balance is something we want to have in our team for sure – scoring-wise, rebounding-wise, assist-wise, screening-wise,” Guido said. “We want to play together in everything we do. We can’t just bank on Nick being the big boy and getting every rebound. A lot of times teams go after him and block him.”
Hanover Area 60,
Pittston Area 43
Tyler Thomas scored the last eight of his game-high 19 points down the stretch as the Hawkeyes pulled away to win the consolation game of the McGrane Tournament.
Asad Whitehead added 11 of his 17 points in the second half for Hanover Area.
Naseem Guillaume scored 14 points for Pittston Area and Andrew Krawczyk finished with 12.
MMI Prep 54, Benton 24
Matt Marchetti scored all 10 of his points in the opening quarter as the Preppers built a 20-point lead and cruised past Benton.
Philip Byriel scored a game-high 15 points for MMI, while Keefer Horetz added nine. Jacob Martin led Benton with 10 points.
Allen 67, GAR 53
Khairi Carson and Will Johnson both scored 13 points for GAR, but the Grenadiers couldn’t overcome a 23-point night from Allen’s Jaisan Lopez in the Allen Tournament.
Anthony Hawk added 12 points for GAR, which trailed by three points at halftime but was outscored 14-6 in the third quarter.
Northwest 62, Milton 39
Sam Saxe scored 10 points in each of the first two quarters, on his way to a 39-point night that triggered a run to victory for the Rangers in the first round of the Milton Tournament.
Tyler Stevens added nine points on three 3-pointers in the victory, which sends the Rangers into the tourney title game against Warrior Run.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Hiram 94, Wilkes 85
Marcus Robinson led the Colonels with 21 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists in a loss to Hiram in the Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Wilkes, which fell to 6-4 overall, fought back in the latter stages of the second half. The Colonels trimmed their deficit to six points at 89-83 with 1:10 remaining following a Mark Mullins free throw, but were unable to complete the comeback.
Hiram had four players finish in double figures, led by Terrence Warren’s game-high 22 points and five rebounds.
CYC McGrane Holiday Tournament Championship
Holy Redeemer 44, Crestwood 41
CRESTWOOD (41) — Ryan Petroski 0 0-0 0, Kevin Klusewitz 0 1-3 1, Sean Murphy 1 0-0 2, Camden Boris 8 3-4 22, Evan Knapp 3 0-0 7, Mike Palmiero 4 0-0 9. Totals 16 4-7 41.
HOLY REDEEMER (44) — Bryce Yencha 2 0-2 4, Derek Answini 1 0-0 3, Joey Judge 3 2-3 8, JD Turosky 3 0-0 6, Collin Cook 3 4-4 13, Nick Prociak 4 2-2 10. Totals 16 8-9 44.
Crestwood`8`9`12`12`—`41
Holy Redeemer`10`11`15`8`—`44
Three-point goals —CRE 5 (Boris 3, Knapp, Palmiero); HR 4 (Cook 3, Answini).
Hanover Area 60, Pittston Area 43
HANOVER AREA (60) — Desmond Cannon 2 2-2 7, Mike Piscotty 4 0-0 8, Devin Senk 1 0-2 2, Tyler Thomas 9 0-2 19, Asad Whitehead 6 5-6 17, Carlos Fernandez 3 1-3 7, Sihiem Wright 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 8-15 60.
PITTSTON AREA (43) — Naseem Guillaume 5 2-2 14, Brennan Higgins 4 0-0 9, Alex McAndrew 0 0-0 0, Matt McGlynn 0 2-2 2, Keemar Woodruff 2 1-2 6, Kolton Zafutto 0 0-0 0, Logan Booth 0 0-0 0, Andrew Krawczyk 6 0-2 12. Totals 17 5-8 43.
Hanover Area`13`8`18`21`—`60
Pittston Area`5`14`17`7`—`43
Three-point goals — HAN 2 (Cannon, Thomas); PA 3 (Guillaume 2, Higgins).
MMI Prep 54, Benton 24
MMI PREP (54) — Philip Byriel 5 3-4 15, Zach Young 0 0-0 0, Matt Marchetti 4 0-0 8, George Palermo 1 0-0 2, Marcus Kassick 3 2-3 8, Mike Badamo 2 0-0 4, Dave Antolick 2 0-0 4, Keefer Horetz 3 1-2 9, A.J. Jordan 1 0-0 2, Tyler Degenhart 0 0-0 0, John Debellis 0 0-0 0, Harry Kress 0 0-0 0, Marcus Danchinson 0 0-0 0, Chris Badamo 0 0-0 0, Ryan McNeils 0 0-0 0, Pete Walko 0 0-0 0, Robert Rinaldi 0 0-0 0, Jordan Kulsa 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 5-9 54.
BENTON (24) — Aiden Chapin 0 0-0 0, Tristan Brown 0 0-0 0, Kevin Sidler 3 0-1 6, Nathan Watson 4 0-0 8, Jacob Martin 5 0-1 10, Derek Buck 0 0-2 0, Leland Bogert 0 0-0 0, Josh Remley 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 0-4 24.
MMI Prep`24`7`15`8`—`54
Benton`4`4`8`8`—`24
Three-point goals — MMI 5 (Byriel 2, Marchetti 2, Horetz).
Allen 67, GAR 53
GAR (53) — Eli Ruiz 2 0-0 4, Khairi Carson 6 0-1 13, Will Johnson 6 1-1 13, Mufee Burney 0 0-0 0, Jared O’Day 0 0-0 0, Tyler Young 1 2-2 5, Tyreek Green 0 0-0 0, Simon Peter 2 0-0 6, Kahlil White Name 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 5-8 53.
ALLEN (67) — Malik Gordon 1 2-2 4, Bless Jones 5 0-0 10, Tyreek Bell 3 0-0 8, Romeo Wright 1 0-0 2, Jaisan Lopez 11 1-1 23, Isaiah Frison 3 0-1 8, Isaiah Ramirez 0 0-0 0, Quintin Stewart 0 0-0 0, Roy Ortega 2 4-7 9, Aquele Adderly 1 1-2 3, Allen Young 0 0-0 0, Josh Stout 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 8-13 67.
GAR`17`14`6`16`—`53
Allen`21`13`14`19`—`67
Three-point goals — GAR 4 (Peter 2, Carson, Young); ALL 5 (Bell 2, Frison 2, Ortega).
Northwest 62, Milton 39
NORTHWEST (62) — Tyler Stevens 3 0-0 9, Sam Saxe 13 10-11 39, Matt Saxe 0 0-0 0, Jaxson Yaple 2 0-0 4, Bryce Koser 3 0-0 6, Walker Yaple 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 10-11 62.
MILTON (39) — Malachi Mosley 0 0-0 0, Kenley Caputo 0 0-2 0, Eric Council 6 1-1 17, Tony Manzano 5 3-4 14, Jalil Garrison 2 1-3 5, Qamar Bradley 0 0-0 0, Colton Loreman 0 0-0 0, Quaylin Rice 1 0-0 2, Alex Garcia 0 1-2 1, Ceaser Allen 0 0-0 0, Brandon Feltman 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 6-12 39.
Northwest`12`14`21`15`—`62
Milton`17`5`4`13`—`39
Three-point goals — NW 6 (Stevens 3, S. Saxe 3); MIL 5 (Council 4, Manzano).
