Boys basketball review, predictions, and schedule changes

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ FROM KEITH GROLLER First of all, some schedule notes. Due to the bomb scare at Emmaus High School today, the boys basketball game between the Green Hornets and Central Catholic will now be played at Rockne Hall tonight after the girls game. Girls slated for 5:30, boys at 7. Also, due to poor weather and illness at Jim Thorpe, the game between Salisbury and the Olympians has been postponed until Jan. 9. Now, a look back at Thursday night when a lot of Colonial League games were played and Catty pulled off the biggest surprise with a win over Northern Lehigh. Here are the scores: Bangor 72, Northwestern 43 -- Slaters look like they could run away with the North Division. Jeremy Ringland scored 18, Jon Owens added 15. Catasauqua 53, Northern Lehigh 50 -- Big fourth quarter for the Roughies, who are 4-2 and in definite contention for a league playoff spot. Wilson 58, Salisbury 43 -- Strong second half by the Warriors after the teams played to a 26-all tie in the first half. Nice scoring balance with five guys scoring between 8 and 13 points. Southern Lehigh 62, Saucon Valley 57 -- Panthers remain winless, while Spartans (4-2, 3-1) look like a district playoff qualifier at a minimum. Pen Argyl 55, Moravian Academy 45 -- Green Knights get their second win here and will likely make it two in a row against Palmerton tonight. Pius X 75, LV Christian 23 -- Royals can expect a challenge from Mahanoy Area in a district final rematch on Saturday. Lincoln Leadership 54, Community Academy 32 -- Taaj Williams, who had 16, could play for a lot of teams. Pocono Mt. West 76, ES North 57 -- Panthers have won six straight since opening-night loss to Easton. TONIGHT'S PREDICTIONS Central Catholic 64, Emmaus 60 -- Vikings bounce back from Tuesday's collapse, but the Green Hornets are always dangerous. Kudos to Mike Kopp and Dennis Ramella for acting quickly to make sure this game gets played tonight. Easton 60, Becahi 48 -- Rovers are another team looking to rebound after lopsided loss at Liberty. Liberty 74, Freedom 66 -- The Hurricanes can cement their standing as the area's best team with another impressive showing here. Nazareth 63, Northampton 40 -- The Weave is going with his Blue Eagles by a more modest 48-41 score. He's being a little more generous to the K-Kids than I am. Parkland 63, Whitehall 50 -- Zephyrs have given the Trojans fits in recent years, but Parkland has a little too much firepower this time. Allen 66, Dieruff 44 -- Doug Snyder said it has been a challenge to find the right combinations and rotations for his talented roster. That's a good problem to have, of course, but tricky to make it all work and keep everybody happy. This is a Saturday matinee at Dieruff by the way. Pen Argyl 61, Palmerton 40 -- Don't know what to make of the Palmerton situation. All I know is it can't be good to have a change of coaches four games into a season. Best of luck to Frank McCarroll. Pleasant Valley 53, ES South 48 -- I don't think I've had PV correct all season. Stroudsburg 53, Lehighton 40 -- Catty reminded the Indians the other night that there's still a lot more work to be done. But I've heard that the Lehighton student fans were holding up Rich Oertner masks the other night. He never got that kind of love at Northern Lehigh.