The District 2 basketball tournament season continues with 16 more quarterfinal games Wednesday.
There are four boys games in Class 4A and three in 2A, plus a postponed game from Tuesday night and a Class 6A subregional game between district teams. On the girls side, there are four Class 5A and three Class 3A games.
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.
After missing just 6 of 58 games in last year’s tournament, Robinson missed on half that many on opening night. After handling the predictions throughout the early rounds, he will once again, be joined by a panel of prognosticators for the championship games at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
DISTRICT 2 PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
By Tom Robinson
(Home teams in CAPS)
DISTRICT 2-4 CLASS 6A SUBREGIONAL BOYS QUARTERFINAL
WILKES-BARRE AREA by 14 over Delaware Valley
CLASS 5A BOYS QUARTERFINAL
NORTH POCONO by 17 over West Scranton
CLASS 4A BOYS QUARTERFINALS
DALLAS by 35 over Honesdale
NANTICOKE by 12 over Hanover Area
SCRANTON PREP by 15 over Wyoming Area
MID VALLEY by 21 over Lake-Lehman
CLASS 2A BOYS QUARTERFINALS
BLUE RIDGE by 15 over Mountain View
OLD FORGE by 24 over Susquehanna
ELK LAKE by 31 over Lackawanna Trail
CLASS 5A GIRLS QUARTERFINALS
PITTSTON AREA by 40 over West Scranton
Wyoming Valley West by 1 over WALLENPAUPACK
DALLAS by 10 over Crestwood
ABINGTON HEIGHTS by 36 over North Pocono
CLASS 3A GIRLS QUARTERFINALS
Lakeland by 5 over MID VALLEY
MONTROSE by 19 over Wyoming Seminary
RIVERSIDE by 46 over Carbondale
WHAT TO EXPECT
Two of Tuesday’s games were won by lower seeds on the road and even though there are more games Wednesday – 16, rather than 11 – two seems like the right number again.
Tuesday’s schedule also gave us a Class 5A boys bracket where all three games were closer than we anticipated. With rematches – often of lopsided games – filling the schedule, there may not be as many close games.
Expect the Wyoming Valley West and Lakeland girls to win on the road. Wyoming Valley West has been picking up steam heading into the playoffs, winning its last four and six of its last seven. Having to travel to Wallenpaupack makes this shape up as the best game of the night. As division rivals that are entered in the Lou Camoni Memorial Tournament, Lakeland and Mid Valley have already met three times with Lakeland winning by 10 and 24 along with losing by just 2 in its previous trip to Mid Valley.
Earlier meetings indicate there could be some one-sided games tonight. For example: the Riverside girls have beaten winless Carbondale by 45 and 58; the Abington Heights girls’ most recent game was a 53-12 rout of North Pocono; the Elk Lake boys have beaten winless Lackawanna Trail by 41 and 33; the Pittston Area girls have beaten West Scranton by 34; the Dallas girls have beaten Crestwood by 10 and 23; the Nanticoke boys have beaten Hanover Area by 12 and 14; and the Blue Ridge boys have beaten Mountain View by 15 and 7. All of those results would point to the Lakeland-Mid Valley girls game as being the best of the rematches.
RECAP
As predicted, the Nanticoke-Holy Redeemer and Blue Ridge-Old Forge games were the two closest games of the night with one going to overtime and the other decided in the final six seconds. However, the wrong winners were predicted here. Similarly, home teams were projected to win every boys game. Although Carbondale was the road team predicted to come the closest here, it was not predicted as the winner. The Chargers joined the Nanticoke and Blue Ridge girls in winning when they were chosen here to lose.
Tuesday’s boys picks: 4-1 (80.0 percent)
Tuesday’s girls picks: 4-2 (66.7 percent)
Tuesday’s total picks: 8-3 (72.7 percent)
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE: The District 2 tournament pairings and schedule. https://nepabasketball.com/2021-22/D2PairingsReleased.
