Wilkes-Barre Area’s Evan Laybourn-Boddie scored 39 total points in two narrow wins over Dallas in the regular season. The teams meet again tonight for the WVC title.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Mikey Cumbo, center, was one of Dallas’ most productive players in the regular season against Wilkes-Barre Area.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
If Round 3 is anything like the first two rounds, the Wyoming Valley Conference boys basketball championship game will be a fight to the finish.
Division 1 champion Wilkes-Barre Area (19-4) plays Division 1 runner-up Dallas (17-6) at 7 p.m. Saturday for the title at Hazleton Area High School. The time change was to allow removal of any overnight snow.
Admission for is $6 for adults and $4 for students. The only pass that will be accepted is the PIAA Gold Pass. And so no one thinks otherwise, the game does not affect the District 2 power rankings to determine seeding for next week’s district playoffs. Dallas will be the second seed in the D2-5A playoffs while WBA will be the second seed in the D2/4-6A playoffs.
WBA won both regular-season matchup with Dallas — 58-56 on Dec. 30 and 67-65 on Jan. 20.
“We’ve got to go over a couple things,” WBA coach Jim Lavan said. “They definitely hurt us last time with paint touches. Looking at the stats from the last game (with Dallas), we gave up 30-some points in the paint. So that’s definitely something we have to work on in our defense. Just some little tweaks here and there.”
David Jannuzzi had 17 points, Evan Laybourn-Boddie had 15 and Kaprie Cottle scored 14 in the first win against Dallas. Laybourn-Boddie (24), Jannuzzi (14) and Yariel Arugeta (13) paced the Wolfpack in the second win.
Dallas big man Nick Williams had 11 and 15 points, respectively, in the losses to WBA. Mikey Cumbo, who is adept at attacking the rim, combined for 41 points.
The WVC tournament is the perfect place to work on little things before districts.
Prior to the WVC tournament in 2019, there was sort of a dead period between the regular season and the District 2 playoffs. Some teams just practiced. Some arranged scrimmages. The tournament provides the WVC’s top teams an opportunity to get ready for even a bigger prize — a district championship and a spot in the PIAA state tournament.
“To me, I use them as full-blown scrimmages,” Dallas coach Mark Belenski said. “Everybody knows what we’re doing and what we have, so we’re not going to change our tune. But we play to win and never to lose.”
Dallas disposed of Division 2 champion Holy Redeemer 49-33 in the semifinals. The Mountaineers held Redeemer to three field goals and 11 points in the second half. They played without starting guard Jude Nocito, who was out with an injury. Belenski was unsure if Nocito would play against WBA.
WBA took it to Division 2 runner-up Wyoming Area early in its 87-57 semifinal win. The Wolfpack scored 61 first-half points behind the backcourt duo of Jannuzzi and Laybourn-Boddie.
