HAZLE TWP. — For all of Ayden Agapito’s individual achievements as a Crestwood basketball player, at least one team accomplishment had proven elusive: a Comets’ victory at Hazleton Area’s Hughie McGeehan Gymnasium.
That was until Tuesday..
The senior standout released four years of pent-up frustration with a game-high 21 points, including a swooping, thunderous dunk that capped his spectacular all-around performance, as he and the Comets dominated Hazleton Area., 60-37, in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 action.
Crestwood scored 30 of the game’s last 43 points over the final quarter and a half for its most decisive win on the Cougars’ home floor or any win here since February 2021.
“I’ve been playing varsity since I was a freshman and I’ve never won here before,” Agapito said, wearing an ear-to-ear grin afterward. “Their student section always brings the noise and they like to get a little personal and whatever, but it was nice to quiet them and see them walk out of this gym with their heads down.”
Agapito had plenty of help from his teammates on this night.
Gio Barna drained two deep three-pointers from almost the same spot in the corner and fed a cutting Jack Rodgers for a layup as Crestwood (10-3, 4-0 WVC) built a 10-0 lead barely two minutes into the game. Later in the first quarter, freshman Miles Metz swished two more triples as the Comets’ advantage swelled to 18-3 by quarter’s end.
Crestwood’s aggressive man-to-man defensive limited the Cougars to just an Eddie Macko three-pointer out of their shot attempts in the opening quarter. The three points were the fewest for a Hazleton Area team in a first quarter since Crestwood held the Cougars scoreless in the opening eight minutes back in 1999.
“Coming into this (game) undefeated in the conference after winning the McGrane Tournament, we just had a great feeling that we were going to win here,” Barna said. “(My) two shots at the beginning gave me and they gave us as a team even more confidence, I’m not going to lie.”
What made the Comets’ first-quarter barrage notable was Agapito did not a contribute a single point. Not that it mattered to him.
“Everybody was playing well,” he said. “Jack Rodgers was doing the job (defensively) on (Dylan) Stish, their best player. Guys were hitting threes to get us that early lead and our bench was really bringing the energy. .. Everybody was a part of it.
“Some folks like to call us a Dow Jones team (because) we’re up and then we’re down, but to get that kind of energy right from the start by hitting three and getting some big stops, that kept pushing our momentum and motivated us to keep going and pushing through until the game was over.”
Hazleton Area finally got off the deck with Stish’s pull-up jumper and YoYo Moran’s triple cutting their deficit to 20-8. But the Comets countered with eight of the next 10 points to bump their lead back up to 28-10. Rodgers netted three points, Agapito made two foul shots and Metz buried another three to keep Crestwood humming and the Cougars bumming.
“We couldn’t make any shots (and) they made shots,” said Hazleton Area head coach Pat Brogan, who burned his five timeouts long before the final buzzer in attempts to settle his team and possibly unnerve his opponent. “They played harder. “We didn’t respond.”
The Cougars managed to close the gap to 28-14 by halftime, thanks to Macko’s two free throws and a Stish stickback, but they had to work for all their points.
“I thought we did a pretty good job in our gap coverage,” Crestwood head coach Mark Atherton said, while also singling out Rodgers for his job in blanketing Stish.
“Dylan tried to get through us, but we didn’t give him a lot of good looks at the basket. We made him take some tough shots. … Rodgers is a tough kid. He’s a great defender.”
After Agapito assisted on Barna’s basket to start the second-half scoring, the Cougars quickly bounced back with a Stish triple and then his baseline jumper, an Xavier Heck three-pointer and Kevin Lucas’ layup. Suddenly, they were within 30-24 with still almost five minutes left in the third quarter.
But, just as quickly, the Comets followed their timeout with their own 12-0 run that ended with Agapito’s eight straight points on a wide array of moves to the basket.
“He uncharacteristically missed a few layups in the first half. I just told him to shake it off (and) that he’d get to finish those in the second half,” Atherton said. “You saw him do that in the second half,”
“We’ve always had a great relationship with a lot of side conversations,” the veteran coach added. “I’ve watched him develop from his freshman year, weak in the beginning but always had some skill, to now. … He just comes and works hard every day. I love that kid. The progress that kid has made is tremendous.”
Agapito kept attacking the basket in the fourth quarter as his team’s continued to balloon. His sixth and seventh points of the fourth quarter came on his dunk.
By then, the final score was the only matter left unresolved.
“It’s only one win, but a big one on Hazleton’s home court,” Atherton said, trying to offer perspective outside his team’s jubilant locker room. “We’ll keep taking things one game at a time. It’s like I tell our guys, ‘Keep climbing the ladder, keep getting better all the time.’ We have a team that wants to get better, and that’s half the battle.”
Brogan said he knows his Cougars (5-7, 2-1) will need to play better than they did against Crestwood, especially with another WVC Division 1 title contender in Dallas visiting Friday.
“It’s only one basketball game. …We’re still 2-1 in the league,” he said. “Of course, we’ll learn from this and get better. That’s how we work. We’re gonna work tomorrow, we’re gonna get better tomorrow and we’re gonna fight against Dallas.
CRESTWOOD (60)
Johnson 1 0-0 2, Barna 3 0-0 8, Metz 3 4-4 13, Wagaman 2 0-0 4, Montanari 0 0-0 0, Sechleer 1 0-0 3, Rodgers 4 1-2 9, Brace 0 0-0 0, Agapito 8 5-9 21. Totals 22 10-15 60.
HAZLETON AREA (37)
Paulino 0 0-0 0, Moran 1 0-1 3, Stish 4 2-4 11, Ortiz 0 0-0 0, Vasquez 0 1-2 1, Macko 3 3-3 10, Heck 3 0-0 7, Centeno 0 0-2 0, Lucas 1 0-4 2, Lantigua 1 1-2 3, Ramirez 0 0-0 0, Roberts 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 7-18 37.
Crest (10-3, 4-0) 18 10 16 16 — 60
Haz Area (5-7, 2-1) 3 11 13 10 — 37
3-FG: Metz 3, Barna 2, Sechleer, Moran, Stish, Macko, Heck.