District 11 tournament pairings set

By Keith Groller

OF THE MORNING CALL

February 21, 2010
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To secure its first Lehigh Valley Conference boys basketball title, Nazareth had to win five games over a span of 11 nights.

No wonder Blue Eagles coach Joe Arndt said, ''We need a little break.''

His team will get one because along with the LVC title, Nazareth earned a first-round bye and a week off.

As the top seed in the District 11 tournament's 4A class, the Blue Eagles won't be in action until Saturday when they take on East Stroudsburg North or Easton in a quarterfinal-round game.

Nazareth wasn't the only team to benefit by winning its league title.

By winning the Colonial League girls tournament, Wilson jumped from a potential No. 8 seed to No. 2 and delayed a potential meeting with Lehigh Valley Conference champ Central Catholic to the district final.

And in 4A girls, East Stroudsburg South's Mountain Valley Conference title gave the Cavaliers the No. 1 seed. That positioned Liberty and Northampton, state-ranked teams most of the season, on a collision course to meet in the semifinals.

Liberty beat Northampton 39-37 in overtime on Feb. 2.

In total, 65 teams -- 36 boys, 29 girls -- qualified for the district tournament by having at least a .500 overall record or league mark.

In addition to going for the gold, the teams will be trying to earn one of the 18 state tournament berths available -- nine boys and nine girls; three in both 4A classes, two in the rest.

The busiest bracket is the 4A boys where 13 teams qualified, necessitating five games to be played on Wednesday night in the round-of-16. And that means only three 4A boys teams -- Nazareth, Mountain Valley Conference champ Pocono Mountain East and Pocono Mountain West -- received byes into the quarterfinals.

Those five games, to be played at the home of the higher seed, feature Stroudsburg at Allen, Emmaus at Whitehall, Bangor at Liberty, Northampton at Freedom and Easton at East Stroudsburg North.

A pair of 3A boys and a single 4A girls game actually begin the tournament on Tuesday night.

Saucon Valley travels to Southern Lehigh and Panther Valley visits North Schuylkill in the 3A boys games and Freedom goes to Pocono Mountain East in 4A girls on Tuesday.

Seven of the eight district champs from last year are back in tournament. The lone exception is Parkland in 4A boys.

The neutral sites for next weekend's quarterfinals have been selected. The location and times for the semifinals (March 2-3) and finals (March 5-6) will be announced after the matchups are determined.

As usual, the tournament will be staged on a Tuesday-Friday pattern for 4A and 2A girls and 3A and 1A boys teams and on a Wednesday-Saturday template for 4A and 2A boys and 3A and 1A girls.

That routine will continue right through the state tournament, which begins the weekend of March 12-13 and continues through March 26-27 at Penn State.

This is the first year that Northampton athletic director Mike Schneider is the chairman of district basketball.

He said the brackets came together easily with just one glitch that was discovered and corrected in 2A girls after it was noted that one Pen Argyl result was not originally recorded by district statistician John Smith.

''It was brought to our attention that we were missing one result and once we verified that result, it changed the seedings and the matchups,'' Schneider said. ''We adjusted that pretty quickly.''

Among the more compelling storylines to follow will be Central Catholic's quest for an 11th consecutive girls gold.

Also, can a Mountain Valley Conference girls team end a six-year Lehigh Valley Conference stranglehold on the 4A girls crown and can Nativity BVM win Class A gold for the fourth time in five years and for the ninth time in 14 years?

In boys play, can Central Catholic, winners of 13 district 3A titles in the last 24 years, win it again after a midseason coaching change?

Can Notre Dame and Liberty, the best teams in their respective leagues during the regular season, rebound from disappointing league tournament losses?

In 4A boys, no current Mountain Valley Conference member has won district gold since Stroudsburg in 1999. Will that drought end?

Tickets for the first two rounds cost adults $5 and students/senior citizens $3. The adult price goes up a dollar for the semis and finals. All tickets at the door starting with the quarters will be charged at the adult rate, so students and seniors are encouraged to purchase their tickets at the participating school in advance.

Keith Groller