Palmerton situation heads list of five things we learned from Tuesday's boys basketball games

FROM KEITH GROLLER

First of all, I learned Stroudsburg beat ES North, and didn't lose to the Timberwolves as I originally had in yesterday's rankings. The Mounties are now 2-2 in the league.

Now for the real five things learned from Tuesday:

1. Palmerton's coaching situation is a mess. It really has been a mess for years, and some might say the whole athletic program is a bit shaky. I don't know Mike Snyder well. I do know that many people up there don't like him. In fact, even when Palmerton was off to a good start this year, people were still not saying good things about him. In fact, many people did not want him to get the job and accused him of undermining previous coach Ridge Hughes. I am certainly not close to the situation and don't know all of the particulars, but no matter what, we can't have death threats and cars being vandalized. When it gets to that point, it is time not only for a change but for an entire re-evaulation of what you're doing. It will be interesting to see what happens here. Palmerton is supposed to be playing again on Friday. We will see who's in charge.

2. Saucon Valley has a new weapon. What a show Matt Figueroa put on against Northern Lehigh. He definitely gives opposing teams another scoring option to worry about besides Eric Frans and John Clark. I am looking forward to Bangor-Saucon on Thursday night in the Slate Belt. After their first loss of the season, the Slaters have rebounded nicely with a pair of wins. After seeing Bangor twice and Saucon once, I think it's an even matchup, but like most games, it's going to come down to who's hot from the outside. I can't believe Bangor will have another bad shooting night in the same week as it had against Emmaus, so I give the Slaters the edge.

3. Becahi played inspired basketball under assistant coach Bob Wootsick. Wootsick was again a fill-in coach for Al Blount who had to miss the Golden Hawks' game against Central Catholic because Blount had two technicals against Easton last week. When that happens, you have to sit out the next game. This is the second straight year this has happened. These technicals are putting Blount's coaching career in jeopardy. The Golden Hawks, however, seem to respond well to Wootsick and took CCHS to overtime in what was a crticial game for Becahi in its struggle to qualify for districts. Jake Hungarter's 36 points is further indication of his emergence as one's of the area's best scorers.

4. Nazareth and Emmaus both can score. What a game that must have been in Blue Eagle country. Even with overtime, 86-79 is a lot of points for our area. Nazareth came all of the way back from a 52-36 deficit after three quarters and my man, Andy Weaver, says they were down by at least 20 in the second half. Green Hornets placed four guys in double figures and the Blue Eagles had four. Three guys went over 20 points. There were 94 foul shots attempted. Entertaining game. Probably a long one, too. Nazareth is a lock to make the LVC tournament. But Emmaus has to forget about this one ASAP because it is going to have to fight, especially with CCHS, for a wild card berth. I don't see Emmaus beating out Allen for the West Division title, especially after its early loss to Dieruff.

5. Parkland and Whitehall are still struggling. Not so long ago, these two programs were among the area's elite and now it looks as though neither will qualify for the District11 tournament. The Trojans managed just 35 points in a loss at Liberty and continue to struggle to score. In five of eight games this season, Parkland has failed to score 40 points. Whitehall has similar issues, but has at least one proven scorer in Javier Rivera. He can't do it alone, however, and allowing 58 points to Easton is too much.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/