Mullery's buzzer beater propels Nanticoke past North Pocono In Battle Of The Trojans

It didn't end up being the setup Nanticoke wanted. However Liam Mullery improvised as he hit a fadeaway shot at the buzzer to give Nanticoke a 50-48 victory over North Pocono. Nanticoke head coach Zach Pientka on the play. "We drew up a set, it didn't work. Liam came up and made a big play. I'm excited for him, he's a guy we want to be a big time shooter for us. Big shooters make big time plays." Liam Mullery when the ball came into his hand. "I gotta put it up, there's two seconds left. The shot went in."

Jaidyn Johnson started off by scoring Nanticoke's first two baskets then Gavin Turak, Jaylin Collins and Ibn Jordan-Thomas helped give the Trojans a 13-2 lead and led 13-5 at the end of the first quarter. At the start of the second quarter, Johnson went on an 8-3 run to give Nanticoke a 12 point lead. A Turak three pointer and a pair of Johnson free throws gave Nanticoke a 15 point lead. North Pocono went on a 7-0 run to make cut the Nanticoke lead to nine and the Nanticoke lead at halftime to 28-19.

North Pocono went on a 6-0 run to cut the Nanticoke lead to three. A Liam Mullery three brought the Trojan lead to six. Johnson and Caleb Butczynski helped build the Trojans lead up to 8. However, North Pocono went on an 11-3 run to tie the game up at the end of the third quarter. Matt Sedita gave North Pocono their first lead with a basket early in the fourth quarter. Johnson and Butczynski gave Nanticoke the lead back with a pair of baskets. A pair of free throws by AJ Nemitz tied the game at 46. Chris Walsh hit a layup to give North Pocono a 48-46 lead. The Trojans missed a shot on their end and North Pocono got the rebound with little time left. However, North Pocono missed the front end of a one and one and Nanticoke got the rebound. Mullery tied up the game at 48. On North Pocono's end, they were called for a double dribble with 5.2 seconds left. After they went down the court, Nanticoke called timeout to set up one final play. In the inbounds play, Turak inbounded the ball to Mullery who went for the fadeaway shot and hit the shot at the buzzer to give Nanticoke a 50-48 victory on Opening Night.