Penn Wood cruises past Scranton, marches on in playoffs

Count the ways Penn Wood has won on its quest to defend last season's PIAA Class AAAA state championship.

Saturday at Freedom High in Bethlehem, Aaron Brown scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter and pulled down nine rebounds, including six on offense, as Penn Wood cruised past Scranton, 66-55, in the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals.

The Patriots (26-3), ranked No. 2 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by the Inquirer, had reached the quarters with 20 points from senior guards Will Brown and Tyree Johnson in a 15-point second-round win over Neshaminy on Wednesday.

That came after Johnson, a Hartford recruit, scored a career-high 31 points in the Patriots' 19-point first-round win over Penn Manor on March 13.

"With this team, anybody can step up at any given time," said Johnson, who posted five points, four assists, four rebounds and three steals in Saturday's win over the District 2 champion Knights. "Anybody can get hot. Anybody can score."

Penn Wood coach Clyde Jones said: "We just ask our kids to trust what we run, and our plays work for whoever is open."

The Patriots advance to take on District 11 champ Liberty (25-5) in the PIAA state semifinals on Wednesday. Liberty defeated Hempfield, District 3's two-seed, at Villanova University Saturday, 46-38.

Penn Wood now has won 23 straight games since a 63-61 loss to St. Frances Academy (Md.) on Dec. 23 in Fort Myers, Fla.

"We've been to the state championship," said Aaron Brown, who has several high Division I offers, including West Virginia, Richmond and Penn State. "We know what it takes to get there."

Penn Wood blew the doors off a 26-23 halftime lead by outscoring Scranton 23-9 in the third quarter. Everybody got in on the action.

Will Brown scored 12 and grabbed five rebounds. Junior forward Darian Barnes dropped 10 points and snagged nine rebounds, including four on offense. Junior forward Shawn Oakman, a Division I football recruit recently offered by Penn State, finished with eight points, four rebounds and two blocks. And senior guard Dequan Pelzer came off the bench to chip in seven points, six rebounds and three assists.

Penn Wood outrebounded Scranton an astounding, 43-22, including 19 offensive boards to Scranton's eight.

Knights junior guard Timothy Fisch led Scranton with 17 points on 3-of-6 shooting from deep.The Knights made 11-of-28 three-point attempts as a team (36.7 percent), and that included 7-of-9 shooting from behind the arc in the fourth quarter, well after Penn Wood had built its largest lead, 50-32, with seven minutes, 38 seconds to play in the game.

"[In the third quarter], I told our guys their only way back into this game is to start banging threes," Jones said. "And then there they go – bang, bang, bang."

But Scranton only got as close as nine points the rest of the way, despite the three-point barrage. The Knights made just 18-of-49 field goals overall (36.7 percent), while Penn Wood shot 25-of-57 from the field (43.9 percent).

Scranton guard Terry Turner, a 6-foot-5 sophomore being observed by St. Joseph's University coach Phil Martelli, came in averaging 20.4 points per game but scored just nine Saturday and fouled out with 2:31 remaining in the third quarter.

"It's always demoralizing for a team when their best player is off the court," Jones said. "That made it easier for us to press them, to speed them up, because they didn't have him as an outlet."

Although Penn Wood made just 3-of-14 three-pointers, Will Brown sank 2-of-3 treys in the first quarter to score eight early and give the Patriots a 17-10 lead after one.

Scranton   10 13 9 23 - 55

Penn Wood   17 9 23 17 - 66

S: Timothy Fisch 17, Terry Turner 9, Nathan Lewis 3, Joseph McCarthy 4, Ian Redetzky 9, Bilal Floyd 7, Hasin Dixon 3, Jonathan Devine 3.

PW: Tyree Johnson 5, Aaron Brown 22, Will Brown 12, Dequan Pelzer 7, Shawn Oakman 8, Darian Barnes 10, Jeff Kyem 2.