LVC

Thankfully the snow held off and most teams got games in on Tuesday night.

The games that were played provided more clarity to the playoff picture, but far from finalized everything.

Thanks to Nazareth's win over Whitehall, there's plenty of uncertainty.

This we know: Liberty and Allen are in as division champs.

That leaves three teams for two spots -- Whitehall, Nazareth and Freedom.

Whitehall and Nazareth are tied for the North Division lead with four losses apiece.

Freedom, out of the East Division race but still very much alive in the wild-card chase, has four losses.

From talking with District 11 basketball chairman Mike Schneider (he doesn't run LVC basketall but has a good handle on it), I learned that we could have a one-game playoff to determine the final spot.

It would happen if Whitehall, Nazareth and Freedom all win out and finish with four losses.

There would be a playoff game between Nazareth and Whitehall.

If Whitehall wins, the Zephyrs would be North Division champs and Freedom would get the wild-card spot because they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with Nazareth for the wild-card.

If Nazareth wins, the Blue Eagles would be North Division champs and Whitehall would get the wild-card because it holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Freedom for the wild card.

So, tonight, I had to make a slight change in my story after covering Freedom's win over Becahi. Originally, I said that if the Patriots beat Liberty on Friday, they would be in the league playoffs. I had to add the word :"likely" to that sentence.

There's one scenario where Freedom could beat Liberty and still not make it.

Several tossup games have to go a certain way for that three-way tie to become a reality.

Whitehall would have to beat Parkland on Friday and Nazareth would have to beat both Parkland and Northampton, and, of course, Freedom would have to beat Liberty. And then Nazareth would have to beat Whitehall in the playoff. That's five results that would have to go a particular way.

This year, every game is difficult to figure, so to expect five games to fall a particular way may be asking too mcuh.

What we know for sure is that Libery and Allen are in the tournament as division champs.

And, we also know that if there's a one-game playoff, it would be held Monday and force the semifinals to be shifted from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Also, the intrigue about who's going to make districts continued tonight.

Becahi is now out. I still think the Golden Hawks could have done damage in 3A, but they won't get a shot.

Parkland's win over Northampton kept the Trojans alive, but they still have to beat both Nazareth and Whitehall to qualify for districts.

Emmaus and Central Catholic are also both one win away and they are set to meet Friday night at Emmaus.

The Green Hornets could make it anyway by beating Dieuff, while CCHS could also make it by beating Allen on Saturday afternoon.

If CCHS, Parkland and Emmaus all qualify, it would give the LVC 10 teams for the tournament that is set to begin the week of Feb. 21-27 with the quarterfinals on the weekend of the 26th and 27th.

We'll look at the Colonial League picture next.