Crestwood Boys’ Basketball Comets eliminated from district tourney by North Pocono

Chris Walsh scored a game-high 25 points, and fifth-seeded North Pocono eliminated the Crestwood boys from the District 2 Class 5A tournament 53-41 last Tuesday night at Crestwood High School. The quarterfinal loss put an end to the Comets’ up-and-down 12-11 season.

“It’s a shame,” long-time head coach Mark Atherton said. “The season’s always gonna end in a loss unless you win the state title, but ... I really think that we got better as the season went on — I know we did.”

On this night, the fourthseeded Comets could never get their offense going, making just 4-of-16 field goal attempts in the first half. Still, they only trailed by three (16-13) at the half, mainly due to their strong play on defense. “We were down by three and I didn’t think we played particularly well (in the first half),”

Atherton said. “I thought if we could eliminate some of the (bad) things we were doing offensively, we were gonna get going. Unfortunately, we could never really get it going.”

North Pocono extended its lead to 29-21 on AJ Nemitz’s three-pointer late in the third quarter. The Comets’ Drew Sechleer answered with his own triple, and Crestwood was down by just five (29-24) heading to the fourth. Another Sechleer hoop to start the fourth inched the Comets closer still at 29-26, but a Nemitz basket ignited an 8-1 North Pocono blitz to repel the Comets. After Matt Sklarosky’s 3-pointer got the Comets back within six (42-36) with 2:26 left, the Trojans slammed the door, finishing the game on an 11-5 run. Walsh scored 13 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth.

“Even if we wound up losing, I was hoping it was a matter of us continuing to elevate our game,” Atherton said. “We were playing good basketball up until today. It just seemed like we didn’t play very well. Give credit to North Pocono.”

Sechleer paced the Comets with 12 points and Brandon Burbank finished with 10. Chaz Wright and Derek Johnson each contributed seven points.

“It’s a great group of guys,” Atherton said. “These

Crestwood Girls’ Basketball

kids came to practice every day, they worked really hard, and they’re good kids. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”