After much of Friday’s schedule was moved back, combining the two main semifinal dates from the original plans makes Saturday the busiest day of the District 2 basketball tournament season.
All 12 tournaments – Classes 6A and A, boys and girls – are in action, creating a schedule that features 10 boys and 10 girls games. All but one game is a semifinals, either in District 2 tournaments or subregional tournaments that include District 2 teams.
NEPABasketball.com editor Tom Robinson, who covers and writes about District 2 basketball for the website, is once again predicting the outcomes of games throughout the district and subregional playoffs.
His predictions for the Saturday games are below.
DISTRICT 2 PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
By Tom Robinson
(Home teams in CAPS)
CLASS 6A BOYS SEMIFINALS (District 2-4 Subregional)
SCRANTON by 16 over Wilkes-Barre Area
HAZLETON AREA by 2 over Williamsport
CLASS 5A BOYS SEMIFINAL
NORTH POCONO by 1 over Wallenpaupack
CLASS 4A BOYS SEMIFINALS
DALLAS by 30 over Nanticoke
Scranton Prep by 1 over MID VALLEY
CLASS 3A BOYS SEMIFINALS
HOLY REDEEMER by 36 over Carbondale
RIVERSIDE by 8 over Dunmore
CLASS 2A BOYS SEMIFINALS
HOLY CROSS by 14 over Blue Ridge
Old Forge by 6 over ELK LAKE
CLASS A BOYS QUARTERFINAL (District 2-11 Subregional)
ROBERTO CLEMENTE CHARTER by 16 over Forest City
CLASS 6A GIRLS SEMIFINAL (District 2-4 Subregional)
HAZLETON AREA by 7 over Scranton
CLASS 5A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
PITTSTON AREA by 3 over Wyoming Valley West
ABINGTON HEIGHTS by 9 over Dallas
CLASS 4A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
DUNMORE by 28 over Nanticoke
SCRANTON PREP by 5 over Lake-Lehman
CLASS 3A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
WESTERN WAYNE by 33 over Lakeland
RIVERSIDE by 18 over Montrose
CLASS 2A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
HOLY CROSS by 24 over Blue Ridge
ELK LAKE by 10 over Lackawanna Trail
CLASS A GIRLS SEMIFINAL
FOREST CITY by 25 over MMI Prep
WHAT TO EXPECT
Ask coaches and players around District 2 about goals when the season starts and it would not be surprising for “get to arena” and “make state tournament” to be the two most common responses.
Saturday is the day when most teams find out if they make those two major season-long goals. Expect the intensity of the games to reflect that significance. It doesn’t hurt that many of the matchups are naturally close to begin with and the schedule includes both rematches and first meetings that teams have been able to point to for much of the season.
There are 20 District 2 games or subregional games involving District 2 teams on the schedule: 19 send the winners to the arena, 14 qualify winners for the state tournament and 16 of the losers end all hopes of into the state tourney.
This should not only be the busiest day of the tournament, it should be the most competitive.
The 5-vs.-4 games in terms of seeds were generally the best of the quarterfinals and the 3-vs.-2 games in the semifinals should be even better. along with a surging fifth-seeded Wyoming Valley West team likely to present a big challenge to Pittston Area in Class 5A girls. The best of the 3-vs.-2 games seem to be Scranton Prep at Mid Valley in Class 4A boys, Wallenpaupack at North Pocono in Class 5A boys, Lake-Lehman at Scranton Prep in Class 4A girls, Old Forge at Elk Lake in Class 2A boys and Williamsport at Hazleton Area in Class 6A boys.
Wednesday’s predictions called for the 16 games to have an average margin of 21.3 points and, in reality, they came out to 23.5.
Saturday’s predictions call for an average margin of 13.6 with many of the games to be much closer.
The only games where the prediction is calling for the lower-seeded visitors to win are Scranton Prep and Old Forge in Class 4A and 2A boys. With so many games that are virtual toss-ups, however, there could be more.
RECAP
The only Friday game was won, as predicted, by the Pittston Area boys. The records have been corrected to reflect an error that Tuesday’s girls record was 5-2, not 4-2.
Friday’s boys pick: 1-0 (100.0 percent)
Friday’s total: 1-0 (100.0 percent)
District/subregional boys picks: 14-1 (93.3 percent)
District/subregional girls picks: 12-2 (85.7 percent)
District/subregional total picks: 26-3 (89.7 percent)
