KEITH GROLLER'S BASKETBALL PICKS

From Keith Groller

The glutton for punishment that I am, I have agreed to participate in another prediction contest with Service Electric's Mike Zambelli.

And, just like last fall, area fans can kick my butt as well as Mike.

Look for the contest to be introduced in full next week (hopefully with much smaller advertisements and pictures than the original contest), but it will be very similar to the football contest, except that there will be six basketball games -- three girls, three boys -- to pick every week right through the district playoffs.

Prizes will be involved again and you'll make your predictions right online. I hope we can get close to the nearly 800 who participated in the football contest.

To sharpen my edge for the contest, I am again predicting Friday night's boys games. I was 13-0 last week and would have been 14-0 had I not forgotten the Southern Lehigh-Pen Argyl game. Let's see if we can build some momentum:

LEHIGH VALLEY CONFERENCE

Liberty 64, Allen 61... Looking forward to this one. Should be a high-scoring, entertaining game.

Becahi 63, Northampton 57 ... Nice win by the Golden Hawks over Stroudsburg Thursday night lifted them to 8-5 and has them on a three-game win streak.

Parkland 70, Dieruff 45 .. Don't count out the Trojans just yet, but this one may be their last relatively easy win of the season.

Whitehall 52, Emmaus 42 ... Some commented on this blog that I didn't have a good seat at the Emmaus gym the other night and had to sit in the stands. But I did get a free hot dog at halftime and food always trumps seat location.

Freedom 70, Nazareth 66 ... Could it be two big wins in a row for the high-scoring Stellatos? This one, like Liberty-Allen, should be an offensive delight. Still need to see Freedom in person. Soon, I hope.

COLONIAL LEAGUE

Saucon Valley 49, Bangor 44... Will the Morning Call player of the week curse strike the Slaters' Andy Mulitsch? I hope not.

Catasauqua 60, Southern Lehigh 50... Two hard-to-figure teams here who better get going if they want to make districts.

Notre Dame-GP 72, Northern Lehigh 64... The Colonial League's game of the night and a possible championship game preview.

Salisbury 63, Northwestern 49...I know this is a boys basketball blog entry, but congrats to Salisbury's Caitlin Hrebik on going over 1,000 points today (in all likelihood). Coach Mazz has found out what we've known for a long time and that's that Caitlin's a great kid.

Palisades 57, Pen Argyl 43....Coach Vig rings up his third win of the season, and I have feeling a few more are to come.

Wilson 62, Palmerton 35.. When I think of Palmerton, I think of Penn's Peak, one of my favorite music venues. Will be heading up there soon to take in a show.

MOUNTAIN VALLEY CONFERENCE

Stroudsburg 60, ES South 48... Mounties shake off loss to Becahi and keep district playoff hopes going strong thanks to solid league mark.

Pocono Mountain West 74, Lehighton 30.... I have signed up to follow Pocono West on Twitter, and they are following me.

Pocono Mountain East 68, Pleasant Valley 50... East vs. West will be a special game on Tuesday night.

That's it. Enjoy your weekend and look for the prediction contest early next week.

Keith Groller