NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: WYALUSING USES FAST START TO DOWN CANTON (December 11, 2025)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
WYALUSING — Wyalusing jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back as they defeated Canton 71-17 during NTL boys’ basketball action Thursday.

“That’s what tonight was about for us,” Wyalusing coach Brent Keyes said. “I think the thing I’m most proud of is I said to you last Thursday I was really proud of the energy and effort that night. I was incredibly proud of the energy and effort tonight. Then, even when we had some success early, we didn’t have that long stretch where the energy waned a little bit, or we were inconsistent. We’re certainly not perfect, we have a lot of things we need to get better at fundamentally, and things like that, but we’re playing really hard together, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Wyalusing led 21-4 at the end of the first quarter, and 46-8 at the half. They stretched the lead to 65-13 going into the fourth.

Tyler Caplan led Wyalusing with 18 points while Shay Gartland chipped in with 14.

Jared VandeMark netted 12, Myles Kershner had seven, while Noah Kilmer and Parker Cunningham notched six points apiece.

Aidan Neiley finished with four, as Mason Culver and Bradyn Johnson had two points apiece.

Monte Whitehead had seven to lead Canton with Ryder Route and Jack Whitehead both netting three.

Drew Holton and Teyton Thompson had two points each.

The Rams hit 10 field goals in the first quarter as VandeMark and Caplan had six points each.

In the second they added 12 field goals, including three 3-balls, behind eight from Caplan, and seven out of Gartland.

They also held Canton to just two field goals in the first 16 minutes thanks to some chest to chest defense.

“We definitely are as athletic as we’ve been in a long time, and, across the board, we might be more athletic than we’ve been in most of the years that I’ve coached here, but we need to get more fundamentally sound defensively,” said Keyes. “We still are reaching way too much, we’re still out of position. We had a couple possessions tonight where we took ourselves out of position. We were playing really, really good defense, so working on those little things, getting consistent at those little things, and just that mental toughness - that’s all we’ve talked about for a month now, and the last two nights. I’m pretty happy with where it’s at.”

VandeMark led the team in scoring with six points in their 19 points third frame, while Canton had their highest scoring quarter of the game behind a 3-ball from Route, and a bucket from Thompson.

Wyalusing (1-2) will host Benton on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. while Canton (0-4) hosts Troy next Tuesday.

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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