Bobby Nittinger
Name: Bobby Nittinger
Team: Neshannock
Number: #3
Grade: 11
Height: 6' 4''
Weight: N/A
Position: G
Nittinger’s versatility makes
him more valuable to Lancers

By JOHN D’ABRUZZO
j_dabruzzo@ncnewsonline.com

Neshannock High boys basketball coach John Corey knows what he has in Bobby Nittinger.

“He’s the guy who walks through an airport and people say, ‘He’s a basketball player,’” Corey said.

“He’s tall, lanky and brings those intangibles to the floor. He has a great wing span and gets his hands on a lot of balls and obviously he’s a great shooter.”

Nittinger, a 6-foot-4 junior forward/guard, used every inch of his wing span to help Neshannock get past St. Joseph in the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs Saturday at Hampton.

“He gets a lot of steals and deflections,” Corey said. “To get him out on the break finishing like he does definitely helps us.”

Nittinger scored a game-high 22 points, 11 in each half, as the Lancers took advantage of 21 turnovers in a 74-53 win over the Spartans.

“We did a halfcourt trap, I was on the top and a lot of my teammates were getting steals and then pushing it up to me,” Nittinger said. “Basically, it was everyone behind me doing the work and I was getting easy layups.”

For his performance, Nittinger is Lawrence County’s Athlete of the Week, as selected by The New Castle News sports staff. The award is sponsored by Washington Centre Physical Therapy.

Through 22 games, Nittinger is averaging 13.8 points and he has 32 3-pointers.

“The thing with Bobby was to get him the confidence early and as the season has progressed he’s definitely become a more confident player and the scorer we wanted him to be,” Corey said.

Nittinger averaged 8.5 points during his sophomore year. He made 18 3s and converted 72.5 percent from the foul line.

“I’m just trying to play a little tougher inside,” Nittinger said. “As a sophomore, I was a little intimidated and stayed on the outside a lot. This year, I’m going inside and using my size and finishing when I’m down there.”

Considering his ability to knock down the outside shot, Nittinger has been an asset all over the court.

“Last year, he played a little point guard when Tony (Kirkwood) was down,” Corey said. “This year, it’s nice having him because of his ability to handle the ball.

“We haven’t been in position where the ball has been taken out of Tony’s hands, but the further we go into the playoffs, people will start to take it out of his hands. But they don’t know too much about our second point guard on the floor.”

The Lancers (16-6), ranked third in Class A by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, advance to the quarterfinals to play Carmichaels Friday night. The Mikes (19-4) beat Cornell on Saturday, 58-52.

“We turned it around about the middle of the season last year and we were pretty hot going into the playoffs, but to go out in the first round hurt,” Nittinger said. “It was nice to get there and you want to get there every year, but we definitely want to go deeper.

“We’re playing more as a team. If someone has an off game, someone else will step up. You never know who’s going to have a big game and that makes us hard to guard.”

Corey believes Nittinger will continue to get bigger and better.

“He needs to put on about 15 pounds,” Corey said. “If Mr. and Mrs. Nittinger are out there, we need to start feeding this kid a lot more.

“This offseason, I really want to work with him to become more of a consistent shooter and even a better ball handler. And (with additional weight), he could be a heck of a college basketball player.”
Player of the Week
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