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NANTICOKE — Nanticoke Area had quite a three-year run.
Three state playoff berths. Three seasons with 20 wins or more. Two Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 boys basketball championships. An appearance in last season’s District 2 Class 4A title game.
This season, though, is quite different. Gone are most of the players and the head coach who were responsible for that success. In their place is mostly an inexperienced group which has to scratch and claw for every victory … like on Saturday afternoon.
The Trojans saw a somewhat comfortable eight-point lead with just over a minute left dwindle, yet they held on for a 56-53 victory over Berwick in a WVC Division 1 matinee.
Andy Kozlofski’s two free throws with 5.7 seconds provided the final points of the game, although Berwick (0-3 Div. 1, 2-9) had a crack at tying the game. The Dawgs got the ball down court quickly, but Eric Montross’ 3-pointer hit off the front of the rim, skimmed the backboard and then banged off the back of the rim as time expired.
Nanticoke Area improved to 1-3 in Division 1 and 3-9 overall and it came after an uneven performance against one-loss Crestwood. The Trojans fell behind 15-3 after one quarter, but battled back and fell 48-40 to Crestwood.
“It’s the ups and downs, the inconsistencies with a younger team,” Nanticoke Area coach Zach Pientka said. “We’re playing hard. There is just one game this year where we thought we weren’t locked in and focused on playing hard. Following the game plan and executing the game plan are some of the hiccups we’re having with this young group.”
Pientka took over for John Beggs, who took the season off for health reasons. Also missing are dynamic point guard Nate Kreitzer, productive inside player Trahjan Krupinski and defensive ace Dylan Szychowski. The only starters left are Jake Krupinski and Colby Butczynski, but Butczynski missed Saturday’s game due to a nagging injury.
Krupinski finished with 19 points as did JJ Bielecki, who was one of the first guys off the bench last season.
“I look as myself as a leader,” said Krupinski, a junior and three-year starter. “We lost Trah, Nate and Dylan. They were big leaders and supporters of the team. Now it’s Colby, but I feel I have to step up and rally the guys since our leader is out with an injury.”
Krupinski was nearly knocked out the game as well. He took an elbow to the chin early in the fourth quarter but missed only 31 seconds before returning. His steal and layup snapped a 30-30 tie with five minutes left, later added a drive to the hoop and found Kozlofski inside for a 52-44 lead with 1:10 remaining.
Like Nanticoke Area, Berwick had some success recently, playing for the 2016 D2-3A championship. Since then, the Dawgs haven’t found success fleeting. They played hard Saturday as Miles Doll had 18 points and Montes, an all-state football player who has committed to Delaware State, scored 13.
But too many pockets of inconsistency prevented Berwick from building a lead of bigger than four points. So did an 8-of-21 performance from the foul line.
“It’s a skill deficit,” Berwick coach Jason Kingery said. “They just don’t play enough. They do what I ask them to do, but Berwick basketball has got to learn you have to play this game nine, 10, 11 months out of the year.
“I’m not saying don’t play other sports, but you’ve got to get some skill in when you’re playing other sports. I love my guys to death. They’ll do anything I ask them to do. They don’t miss practice, they’re never late. But out of seven or eight losses, we should have won four of them.”
Nanticoke Area 56, Berwick 53
BERWICK (53): Sean Murphy 2 0-0 6, Devon Smith 0 1-2 1, Miles Doll 6 2-5 18, Blane Cleaver 3 1-4 8, Eric Montes 5 3-8 14, Brayden Boone 0 0-0 0, Ryan Steele 0 0-0 0, Peyton Williams 2 0-0 4, Alex Peters 0 0-0 0, Tahsjee Taylor 1 1-2 3. Totals 19 8-21 53.
NANTICOKE AREA (56): Sincere Shiloh 1 0-0 2, Luke Myers 3 2-3 8, JJ Bielecki 6 4-7 19, Collin Brown 0 0-0 0, Jake Krupinski 4 10-12 19, Andy Kozlofski 1 2-4 4, Tyler Rushton 0 0-0 0, Joe Fox 2 0-0 4. Totals 17 18-26 56.
Berwick`14`13`8`18 — 53
Nanticoke Area`14`11`1`20 — 56
Three-point goals: BER 7 (Murphy 2, Doll 4, Cleaver). NA 4 (Bielecki 3, Krupinski).
