SCRANTON – The CS Comets, a team of Abington Heights players, won the High School Boys Elite Division of the Summer Basketball League, presented by Lenahan & Dempsey, at Riverfront Sports.
The Comets won back-to-back semifinal and final games handily July 26 to complete a summer in which they went 9-1.
Valley AC, from Valley View, outscored the Comets in the second half of the semifinal, but a huge halftime lead held up for a 64-48 victory.
That put the Comets in the final against Back Mountain, the Dallas team, which rallied to defeat Ignation Nation, made up of Scranton Prep players, 67-51, in the other semifinal.
Ryan Nealon, an all-star guard as a sophomore in the 2021-22 season, led a first-half surge that helped the Comets get started toward a 69-38 blowout.
Nealon’s back-to-back 3-pointers put the Comets ahead to stay and started a 19-2 run that he completed with another 3-pointer for a 24-11 lead with 7:10 left in the half.
Back Mountain had been the only team to beat the Comets during the season.
The Comets won their four playoff games by 21.3 points each, all with margins of at least 15 points.
AAU BOYS
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Mason Fedor from Abington Heights was a big part of the NEPA Elite Cooper 17U team finishing strong.
Fedor had a 26-point, 14-rebound game as part of averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds in the three straight wins that put NEPA Elite in the semifinals of the 32-team 17U Casino Division at The Hoop Group Atlantic City Jam Fest.
Patrick Walsh added 12 points and eight rebounds in one of the Atlantic City wins.
The team, coached by Keystone College head coach Brad Cooper, won nine of its final 10 and 11 of its final 13 games.
Nealon and Abington Heights teammate Will Marion formed an often-explosive backcourt combination for the top NEPA Elite squad, the Coyle 17U team.
Marion made a team-high 13 shots from 3-point range on 27 attempts while Nealon was 10-for-19 from long range while the team was going 4-1 in Atlantic City. The only loss at the event came in overtime.
AAU GIRLS
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Emma Coleman, a rising eighth-grader at Abington Heights, was a member of the NEPA Elite Clark 13U girls team that wrapped up the season by winning consecutive tournaments in the 14U division of Hoop Group events.
Coleman had three steals in the season ending, 53-30 victory over Team Jersey Elite in the 14U Orange Division championship game of the Girls Live in New England Event July 22.
The 13U team is 39-5 since moving up in competition in September of 2021 after competing previously as the NEPA Flames.
Coleman had seven points, three assists and three steals in a 57-42 victory over New Hampshire Spartans 8th in the final pool game in New England.
A week earlier, Coleman had two baskets during a 15-2 run that turned an eight-point semifinal deficit into a three-point lead on the way to the 14U title at Hoop Group Championship Weekend.
Mackenzie Schirg from Lackawanna Trail had six points, 10 rebounds, five steals and three assists for NEPA Elite Macciocco 16U girls in a 59-38 loss to New Jersey Shoreshots-Carman on the final day of the season in New England.
Schirg had 10 points in a 54-38 loss to EVO Elite 16U HGSL.
Maggie Coleman from Abington Heights had eight rebounds for NEPA Elite Rini 15U in a season-ending, 43-40 loss to Mid-Atlantic Magic 2025 HGSL.
Coleman had 13 points and three steals in a 48-34 victory over Lady Runnin’ Rebels, the team’s only victory in an event where it suffered one-, two- and three-point losses. She also had a team-high 13 points in a 43-42 loss to Long Island Lightning and eight points and four steals in a 38-36 loss to Mass Frenzy 15U.
