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DALLAS TWP. — There was a time in his most prolific basketball career when Nate Kreitzer had tons of trouble trying to make a basket from the field.
“I was in seventh grade, I couldn’t hit an open shot,” Kreitzer said. “I just kept working, in AAU, in school ball.
“It takes a long time.”
That now seems like a lifetime ago.
Kreitzer swished eight 3-point field goals, erupted for 35 points Friday and brought Nanticoke Area back from an 18-point second-half deficit to stun Hazleton Area 68-64 in a boys basketball semifinal of the inaugural Wyoming Valley Conference Championships at Dallas High School.
“Once we got hot, we know what we could do as a team,” Kreitzer said. “We have the most swagger as a team. It’s incredible. History.
“First time ever.”
Division 2 champion Nanticoke Area (19-5) will face Division 3 champion Wyoming Seminary (21-2) for the initial WVC boys overall league title at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hazleton Area High School.
Hazleton Area fell to 16-7 and will be off until the District 2 Class 6A tournament opens next week.
“We were right there with a chance to play in our home gym tomorrow,” a disappointed Hazleton Area coach Mike Joseph said. “Somebody else is going to play in our gym for a championship.”
All because it was pretty impossible to stop one of the smallest guys on the floor.
The 5-foot-10 Kreitzer got loose for seven points in the opening quarter to help the Trojans stay close, but was held to the only two points Nanticoke Area scored in the second quarter as Hazleton Area rolled into halftime with a 31-16 lead.
Da’Mir Faison scored 10 of his team-high 20 points over the first two quarters, Kyle Franek popped in 11 of his 15 and the Cougars took an 18-point lead after Sparky Wolk’s 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second half.
“We were in complete and total control of the basketball game for the first 17 minutes,” Joseph said.
Then Kreitzer snatched it away.
He buried two 3-point bombs well behind the arc and Jake Krupinski drove for a bucket as the Trojans tore off an eight-point run to pull within 10.
Andrew Vayda and Faison each scored four points to help keep the Cougars’ lead in double digits, but Nanticoke Area wouldn’t go away.
Kreitzer’s third 3-pointer of the second half closed the gap to 10 again, and Colby Butczynski hit back-to-back buckets to bring the Trojans within 48-38 with 1:50 remaining in the third period.
Turns out, Kreitzer and the Trojans were just warming up.
Krupinski hit two free throws and an inside basket in a 34-second span to cut Hazleton Area’s lead to six points, then Kreitzer made a 24-foot trey three seconds before the buzzer.
That sent the Cougars into the fourth quarter desperately clinging to a five-point lead.
“You can’t stop playing against a guy like Nate Kreitzer,” Joseph said. “He’s a hell of a player. He’s outstanding. We’ve seen that for the last three years.
“He’s a hell of a shooter.”
As it turned out, he shot Hazleton Area’s lights out of the league playoffs.
Kreitzer buried his sixth 3-pointer two seconds into the final quarter, giving him two straight long-range bombs of over 20 feet in a five-second span. And suddenly, Nanticoke Area was within two points.
“Nate has in-the-gym range,” Nanticoke Area coach John Beggs said. “He steps on the court, he’s in range.”
Suddenly, so were the Trojans.
It was the start of a 12-point fourth quarter for Kreitzer that completed his 26-point second half and carried the Trojans straight to the title game.
His seventh 3-pointer with 3:32 to go pulled Nanticoke Area within five points again.
“First of all, he has great confidence,” Beggs said. “And when he makes one or two, the basket just opens up and becomes very large for him.”
That large lead Hazleton Area once held fell to four points again when Kreitzer swished his eighth trey to pull the Trojans within 62-58 with 2:58 to play.
“I just don’t really think about it, I just shoot the ball,” Kreitzer said. “It falls for me. I just get it and shoot it. You can’t think about it too much.”
Thinking victory was in their grasp, the Trojans turned things up.
Butczynski, the leader of a press defense that frazzled the Cougars through the second half, let loose with a 3-pointer with 1:56 to play to pull the Trojans within a point, then Trahjan Krupinski’s used a free throw to tie the score at 62-62 with 94 seconds remaining, then tied it again with a layup with 36 seconds to play.
Butczynski used a free throw to give Nanticoke Area its first lead — 65-64 with 23 seconds to play — since Trahjan Krupinski opened the scoring with a 3-pointer.
“Nate Kreitzer started shooting it,” Beggs said, “everybody else followed him, started making plays. Once we got it close, the fans started rocking. The guys are resilient, they’re a good group.
“It was an exciting ending.”
But it was Kreitzer who started the improbable comeback, so it was Kreitzer who finished it.
His two foul shots with 20 seconds on the clock gave Nanticoke Area a three-point lead, and his free throw with less than a second remaining set the final score.
“We just have that mentality in our head that we can come back from anything,” Kreitzer said. “The whole team had that confidence.”
WVC Championships Semifinal
Nanticoke Area 68, Hazleton Area 64
NANTICOKE AREA (68) — Jake Krupinski 2 2-2 6, Colby Butczynski 4 3-6 12, Dylan Szychowski 0 0-0 0, Trahjan Krupinski 6 2-3 15, Nate Kreitzer 12 3-5 35, Andy Kozlofski 0 0-0 0, J.J. Bielecki 0 0-0 0, Luke Myers 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 10-16 68.
HAZLETON AREA (64) — Andrew Vayda 5 0-0 11, Sparky Wolk 2 0-2 5, Kyle Franek 4 6-9 15, Da’Mir Faison 7 4-7 20, Warren Seigendall 1 2-2 5, Scotty Campbell 3 2-4 8, Jacxander Moronta 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 14-24 64.
Nanticoke Area`14`2`29`23 — 68
Hazleton Area`18`13`19`14 — 64
Three-point goals — NAN 10 (Kreitzer 8, T. Krupinski, Butzcynski); HAZ 6 (Faison 2, Franek, Wolk, Seigendall, Vayda).
