By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
The Dunmore Athletic Department announced late Friday afternoon that a “COVID issue” was the reason for the cancellation of Friday night’s Lackawanna League Division 3 finale against Mid Valley.
According to a short announcement released by Bucks athletic director Mark Finan, “the Lady Bucks will look to resume play on Thursday, March 4,” which is the day that the District 2 Class 4A girls tournament is scheduled to open with a quarterfinal round.
“Due to a COVID issue, we will be putting our girls basketball program on pause,” the statement read. “Therefore, our remaining league game with Mid Valley has been canceled for this evening.
“We will continue to follow all (Department of Health) guidelines and have notified all necessary parties.”
The Lackawanna League Division 3 champion Lady Bucks wound up with two cancellations for this weekend, covering the final two games of the regular season.
Bethlehem Catholic, the team’s scheduled Saturday afternoon non-league opponent, had already cancelled that game because of the need to complete its league schedule.
The more recent cancellation makes it unlikely that Dunmore will complete its league schedule.
The Lady Bucks are 11-0 in the division with only the Mid Valley game remaining. Every other team in the division already has two or more losses, so Dunmore has clinched its eighth straight division title.
Dunmore is currently second out of 11 teams in the race for seeds in the eight-team District 2 Class 4A tournament with a 15-1 overall record. It is ranked behind only unbeaten Scranton Prep, which handed the Lady Bucks their only loss.
Following Dunmore’s decision earlier Friday, Holy Cross, which played the Lady Bucks Tuesday, postponed its Friday night game as a precautionary measure.
