The first round of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament continues Wednesday with 11 games involving District 2 teams.
The second day of PIAA action includes games in Class 6A, 3A and 2A boys as well as Class 5A, 4A and A girls. There is at least one game involving a District 2 team in each class.
The PIAA is using home courts in most cases for first-round games this season. The Holy Cross boys, however, are playing their game at Lackawanna College.
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 state tournament after also picking all the games in the District 2 tournament.
His predictions for the Wednesday games are below.
PIAA PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
By Tom Robinson
(Home team in CAPS)
CLASS 6A FIRST-ROUND BOYS GAME
SCRANTON by 7 over West Chester East
CLASS 3A FIRST-ROUND BOYS GAMES
HOLY REDEEMER by 16 over Southern Columbia
LOYALSOCK TOWNSHIP by 12 over Riverside
CLASS 2A FIRST-ROUND BOYS GAMES
Holy Cross by 5 over Antietam
Old Forge by 1 over WYALUSING VALLEY
CLASS 5A FIRST-ROUND GIRLS GAMES
ABINGTON HEIGHTS by 12 over Twin Valley
Pittston Area by 4 over BANGOR
CLASS 4A FIRST-ROUND GIRLS GAMES
DUNMORE by 10 over Shamokin
SCRANTON PREP by 5 over North Schuylkill
BERKS CATHOLIC by 7 over Lake-Lehman
CLASS A FIRST-ROUND GIRLS GAME
Jenkintown by 3 over SUSQUEHANNA
WHAT TO EXPECT
The tournament returns to its usual format of 32 teams per class, but also continues last year’s policy of allowing higher-seeded teams – often district champions – to host first-round games. Home teams only went 5-5 in the Tuesday games involving District 2 teams and District 2 teams also went 5-5. Expect the records of both home teams and Districtd 2 teams to be a bit better Wednesday. The Pittston Area girls and Old Forge boys, trying to repeat last year’s surprise run to the state semifinals, are the best hopes of giving District 2 a win on the road. Old Forge and Wyalusing Valley is a rematch of an exciting game the Blue Devils won on the same floor to start last year’s tournament and could be the best game of the night.
RECAP
The three incorrect picks from Tuesday’s state openers included the Scranton Prep boys and Western Wayne girls pulling off impressive road wins. There were no exact hits in a 7-3 night, but we did come within one point of the correct victory margin on wins by the Dallas boys and Methacton girls and within two points of the win by Mount Carmel.
Wednesday PIAA boys picks: 3-2 (60.0 percent)
Wednesday PIAA girls pick: 4-1 (80.0 percent)
Wednesday total PIAA picks: 7-3 (70.0 percent)
District/subregional boys picks: 27-4 (87.1 percent)
District/subregional girls picks: 30-2 (93.8 percent)
District/subregional total picks: 57-6 (90.5 percent)
Total postseason boys picks: 30-6 (83.3 percent)
Total postseason girls picks: 34-3 (91.9 percent)
Total postseason picks: 64-9 (87.7 percent)
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE: First-round PIAA games for teams from District 2. https://nepabasketball.com/2021-22/Playoffs/PIAAFirstRoundSked
