DUNMORE – An outstanding Tamaqua boys basketball season came to a screeching halt on Friday in the PIAA State Tournament.

Playing on the campus of Marywood University, the Blue Raiders had no answer for a powerful Scranton Prep squad.

Prep, perhaps one of Northeast Pennsylvania’s finest hoop programs, breezed to a 69-35 victory in a Class 4A opening round contest.

The Cavaliers’ victory left no lingering questions. They were that talented, played that well, and were that much better then a gritty, but over-matched Blue Raider team.

Where the winners dominated was on the wings of 6-8 junior standout and potential Division I recruit Leo O’Boyle, who poured in 17 points and yanked down nine rebounds.

But O’Boyle wasn’t the only Cavalier doing the damage as teammate West Simmons, a 6-5 senior, was just as intimidating and dominant with 15 boards and 10 points.

Scranton Prep was never in serious trouble. It zoomed out to a 13-2 opening quarter lead, while Tamaqua was struggling to find its shooting touch. Just a little less than a week ago, Tamaqua rode to a District 11 consolation game victory over Wilson on the wings of Lucas Gregoire, Thad Zuber and Braydon Knoblauch. This time the superb trio were stifled time and again by the much quicker Cavs.

Things didn’t get any easier for Tamaqua as the game went on. As much as the Raiders tried to come up with answers, they never could slow down the Prep offense or solve its defense.

Tamaqua had problems dealing with the Cavaliers’ full court pressure and by the halfway point, it was trailing, 34-11.

With Tamaqua still struggling to score and Scranton Prep still rolling offensively — the Cavaliers hit 50 percent of their field goal attempts during the first three quarters, going 23-for-46 — any second half comeback hopes the Raiders might have entertained were quickly dismissed.

By the end of three quarters, Scranton Prep was ahead 53-19, leading to reserves from both teams seeing plenty of court time in the final period.

“We didn’t take care of the ball and we knew coming in that was going to be a must for our offensive approach,” said Tamaqua coach Jim Barron. “They’re so long, quick and impressive.

“We struggled as you can tell. We did a bad job of protecting the ball, and a bad job of shooting and rebounding.”

SUPER SEASON ... Tamaqua finished the season with an 18-8 record, qualifying for the PIAA playoffs for the second time in the last four seasons, after going 20 years without a state appearance.

GREAT CAREER ... Zuber led the Raiders with 11 points. He ends his high school career with 1,012 points, which is 12th on the all-time Tamaqua boys scoring list.

OTHER SENIORS ... In addition to Zuber, Mitchell Kurek, Casey Rother and Gabe Gregoire all played their final high school games for the Raiders.

UP NEXT FOR PREP ... The Cavaliers move on to the second round of the state playoffs where they will play perennial power Imhotep Charter. Imhotep, the District 12 champ, crushed Kennard-Dale, the District 3 No. 4 team, 76-30.

TAMAQUA

Bonetsky 1-1-2-3, Stianche 2-0-0-4, Griffin 0-0-0-0, Kurek 0-1-2-1, Zuber 4-2-2-11, Mateyak 0-0-0-0, Knoblauch 1-0-0-2, Rother 3-0-0-6, Zehner 1-1-1-3, Agosti 0-0-0-0, G. Gregoire 0-2-6-2, L Gregoire 9-2-2-20, Stauffenberg 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-7-13-35

SCRANTON PREP

Schemerhorn 1-0-0-2, Boland 2-4-5-8, Rotell 2-0-0-5, Genco 3-0-0-6, Skoff 1-0-0-2, Bednarz 1-0-0-2, O’Boyle 8-0-0-17, D’Elia 1-5-5-7, Simmons 5-0-0-10, Merritt 5-0-0-10. TOTALS: 29-9-10-69

Tamaqua 2 10 7 16 — 35

Scranton Prep 13 19 21 16 — 69

Three-pointers: Tamaqua - L Gregoire 3, Zuber 1. Scranton Prep - Rotell 1, O’Boyle 1.