NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: SPENCER, THOMPSON LEAD NP-LIBERTY PAST WYALUSING, CLAIM 2ND STRAIGHT NTL TITLE (2021-02-25)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
WYALUSING — Wyalusing came out and scored 27 first quarter points on the strength of five 3-pointers, but North Penn-Liberty weathered the storm, fought back, and ultimately won 65-52 to claim the NTL Division-II boys’ basketball title for the second year in a row.

After going 29 years between league titles the Mounties now have two this decade.

“It feels pretty good,” said NP-Liberty coach Brian Litzelman said. “I didn’t know, with the way this week was playing out, with four games in five days, and stuff like that…I didn’t know how it would play out.”

Their game at NEB on Monday was cancelled, then they lost to Troy on Tuesday, before edging out Canton Wednesday, and Wyalusing Thursday to claim the championship.

“To come out on top feels really good at the end of the week,” said Litzelman.

For Wyalusing coach Brent Keyes it’s a marked improvement from their 70-45 loss to the Mounties on the road last Saturday, but after scoring the 27 first quarter points they only had 25 the rest of the game.

“We had a good game plan tonight,” said Keyes. “The guys came out with their hair on fire, and made a bunch of shots, and had some real energy early. They made some adjustments, and offensively, we were awful the last three quarters.”

Grayden Cobb led Wyalusing with 20 points, three boards and two blocks as Isaiah Way finished with 13 points, three boards, three steals and three assists.

Hunter Moss had eight points as Kashawn Cameron scored six, all in the first quarter. Blake Morningstar notched three, Abram Bennett had two and Mitchell Burke chipped in with four boards and two assists as he battled foul trouble all night guarding the 6-foot, 7-inch Brandon Thompson.

Thompson and Noah Spencer combined for 48 points, 26 for Spencer and 22 for Thompson, who was 8-for-9 from the free throw line.

As a team NPL was 17-for-19, with Colton Litzelman scoring eight points, Koleton Roupp netting seven and Kevin Alexander rounding things out with two.

The Mountaineers had just played a similar game against Canton, where they trailed going into the fourth quarter, then held the Warriors to four points to get the win.

“Canton was on fire in the first quarter, and it’s hard to shoot like that for four quarters,” explained Litzelman. “We had to stay close, and try to peck away, and win every quarter from there on out.”

The Rams jumped out to a 5-0 lead as Cobb hit a 3-pointer followed by a jumper from Way. Thompson got NPL on the scoreboard with two free throws, but a driving lay-up by Way made it 7-2. 

Spencer would find Thompson for a lay-up as they did a little two-man game, something they did well most of the night, but another Cobb 3-ball had Wyalusing up 10-4.

Wyalusing was 4-for-5 from the field through the first two minutes, and 30 seconds of the game.

A Spencer lay-up back to back 3-pointers by Moss had the Rams up 16-6. A Thompson lay-up cut it to 16-8 with 3:40 left in the opening frame, but Cobb’s third 3-ball of the quarter made it 19-8. 

Things got a little more even from there as a Roupp 3-pointer followed by Thompson going 1-of-2 from the line cut it to 21-12.

Cameron would come back with two freebies, but a Spencer assist to Alexander made it 23-14.

Then, in the final minute, Cameron had two big lay-ups to extend the lead to 27-14 at the first break.

“We knew they were going to come out with a ton of energy,” said Litzelman. “And we knew they would shoot better than they did at our house on Saturday. We just tried to weather the storm.”

Things changed drastically in the second quarter for the Rams as they didn’t score in the first four minutes of the frame, and finished with six points in total.

That allowed NPL to come back, though at a slow pace. Lay-ups by Spencer and Litzelman cut it to 27-18. Then, at the 4:18 mark Litzelman had an old fashion 3-point play to make it 27-21.

Way knocked down a jumper for Wyalusing to end the drought, but that was followed by a Thompson put back.

Another Way jumper at the two minute mark made it 31-23 Rams, but a Roupp 3-pointer cut it to 31-26. Then, with 1.8 seconds left, Cobb was fouled shooting a 3-ball. He went on to make 2-of-3 to give Wyalusing a 33-26 lead at the break.

Then, in the third quarter, things changed in a hurry for NPL, as they scored the first eight points to take a 34-33 lead. It was Thompson netting six of them.

A pair of Moss free throws put the Rams back on top 35-34 as the two teams went back and forth the rest of the quarter.

Spencer hit a 3-pointer to put the Mounties up 37-35, only for Cobb to nail one of his own from deep to make it 38-37 Rams. A Morningstar 3-ball put Wyalusing up 41-37, but a Spencer lay-up, plus the foul, cut it to 41-40 halfway through the quarter.

Cobb followed that with a put back, but NPL scored the next seven points to take a 47-43 lead. Spencer had five of the seven points - two off free throws, then a 3-pointer.

Way then went 1-of-2 from the line, followed by a jumper, to cut it to 47-46 after three.

A Cobb lay-up right out of the gate of the fourth put the Rams up 48-47, but that would be their last lead of the night.

Spencer came back with a 3-ball, followed by four straight points from Thompson to give NPL a 54-48 advantage with 5:27 left.

Way hit a jumper at the 5:10 mark, but a 4-0 run by Spencer put the Mounties up 58-50 with 2:50 left to play.

Bennett would knock down a pair of free throws at the 2:38 mark to make it a 6-point game again, but NPL finished on a 7-0 run, including a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line, to secure the win.

The Rams got just two minutes out of their last eight possessions, including three turnovers and four missed shots.

For NPL this is a culmination of 6 a.m. mornings with Litzelman finding his players waiting for him to open the gym so they could get some shots up before school.

Spencer and Thompson were the two cornerstones these past two seasons for him.

“He’s the guy who I want to have the ball in his hands at the end of the game,” said Litzelman. “He’s my leader, he’s my go to.”

As for Thompson, he’s been trying to get him to play as big as he can.

“We had a huge height advantage, and I told Brandon before the game, he had to play like he’s 6-7 tonight,” explained Litzelman. “And at times I definitely think he did.”

After finishing out the season against Canton Saturday, the Mounties will now focus on the District IV, Class A playoffs, where it looks like they will host Millville on Tuesday.

“I definitely want to play in the opening round,” said Litzelman. “Last year I felt we sat for a week, didn’t play any games, which I think hurt us. Staying the two seed isn’t going to make me too upset because we’ll get a game next Tuesday, get our feet wet, and try to have a better showing than last year.”

The Rams will travel to Williamsport Friday as they look to get one more game in before the end of the regular season.

“(We’ll) go out and try to get better for 32 minutes,” said Keyes. “And then we’ll start to practice. We haven’t practiced in two weeks. We’ll practice for three days before Wednesday.”

They currently hold the two seed in the District IV, Class AA standings and look to stay there. Right now they would host Sayre next week in the quarterfinals.

“Our focus is to win a district title,” said Keyes. “We’re in a decent spot in AA. Every team’s competitive, we could lose any night, we could win any night. We know that, and we can prepare the right way.”

CUTLINE: Wyalusing’s Isaiah Way drives against NP-Liberty Thursday…PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING.