Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Predictions on tonight's four District 11 4A boys basketball games

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

FROM KEITH GROLLER


A big night of basketball is on tap with four 4A District 11 games at four different locations.
Three of them are MVC vs. LVC matchups.
Pocono Mountain West is the defending 4A champ and the No. 1 seed, and the Panthers still feature two very talented players in Eric Vick and Joe Wiggins.
They are not to be taken lightly. And after what happened last year, I don't think they will.
But by and large the MVC has not done very well against the LVC this year, winning just eight times in 32 games.
West has three of those MVC wins, but all four of its losses are to LVC members. Stroudsburg is 3-6 against LVC members and ES South is 2-4.
What does that mean for tonight's games? Well, it means that the LVC teams are favored in the three matchups with the MVC members.
As for the all-LVC game between Easton and Allen, this is a rematch of a 62-46 Red Rovers' win over the Canaries on Jan. 15.
How do we see tonight's games unfolding?
Emmaus 50, Pleasant Valley 42 -- The Green Hornets are much stronger at home than they are on the road. Probably six or seven points better. The home-court advantage gives Emmaus the edge tonight, although Pleasant Valley has been stronger in the second half of the season and made it to the MVC finals.
Parkland 64, ES South 49 -- Can't say enough about the job that first-year coach Shawn Munford has done with the Cavs and O'Neil Holder is a legit scorer. However, the Trojans are the much better team here and only a letdown by them could keep this game close.
Whitehall 51, Stroudsburg 47 -- Probably the closest game of the night. The Zephs have done a nice job just to get into districts. Their win over PM West a couple of Saturday nights ago was the key to them getting to the postseason. They are playing much better defense, mastering the match. But Stroudsburg is quite capable of pulling off a surprise here, especially if Jacob Battle gets hot.
Easton 55, Allen 45 -- It's clear that Allen is a much better team when it tries to get the ball inside. Last time against Easton, the Canaries stayed on the perimeter. 19 of their 43 shot attempts were from 3-point range and even though they made eight treys, including five by freshman Zay Jennings, the game wasn't close. Easton is vulnerable. The Rovers have lost three straight. But the Canaries are going to have to play at a very high level to pull off a surprise.

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