NEPA Sports Nation

Dallas, Holy Cross boys rebound

The Dallas and Holy Cross boys extended winning streaks by beating teams they are battling with for division titles.

The Mountaineers and Crusaders used their latest victories to move back up in the rankings, taking over the two No. 2 spots.

Dallas returned to the No. 2 Big School boys position it held at the beginning of the season. The Mountaineers knocked Pittston Area out of first place, then took over sole possession of the lead in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 boys.

Holy Cross, which opened the season as the No. 1 Small School before dipping as low as fourth, climbed to second by breaking a tie for first place in Lackawanna League Division 3 with Mid Valley. The Crusaders took the second ranking away from the defending division champion Spartans by winning twice in the week to stretch their winning streak to five.

Dallas has won six straight, including a 3-0 week in which it followed up Friday’s 62-48 win over Pittston Area by beating Berwick, 66-53, Saturday.

The Pittston Area, Hazleton Area and Riverside boys, as well as the Wyoming Valley West girls, also moved up in the latest rankings, which came out Sunday night.

The Nanticoke boys and Crestwood girls joined the rankings for the first time this season while the Riverside girls rejoined the Super Six.

All four No. 1 teams remained the same.

The Abington Heights boys and Scranton Prep girls have led the Big School rankings all season. The Holy Redeemer boys and Dunmore girls held on to the top Small School spots that each has been in for the majority of the season.

Abington Heights won twice during the week, including taking what was at the time a meeting of the top two Big Schools, the teams with the best boys records in the district and teams tied for first in Lackawanna League DIvision 1.

The Comets won, 52-38, over Valley View, which swapped places with Dallas, dropping from second to third.

Pittston Area, despite the loss to Dallas, and Hazleton Area moved up one spot each to fourth and fifth.

WVC Division 2 leader Nanticoke extend its winning streak to five and took over the sixth spot.

Scranton Prep, the former No. 4 team, lost two of three games and dropped out of the rankings.

Holy Redeemer won its only game of the week to hold No. 1 among Small School boys.

Two Lackawanna Division 3 games produced swaps in positioning behind Holy Redeemer.

Along with Holy Cross beating Mid Valley for a switch in the second and third spots, Riverside topped Old Forge, 51-49, leading to the Vikings moving from fifth to fourth in place of the Blue Devils.

Lackawanna Division 4 leader Blue Ridge ran its winning streak to six and held the sixth spot.

The top four held steady in both sets of girls rankings.

Scranton Prep is followed by Pittston Area, Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area.

The top-ranked Classics remained unbeaten within District 2.

Pittston Area stands as the last unbeaten basketball team in the district, boys or girls, after winning a WVC Division 1 first-place battle with Wilkes-Barre Area, 40-35, Monday.

Wilkes-Barre Area also lost to Hazleton Area later in the week.

Wyoming Valley West moved up from sixth to fifth after winning twice.

Lackawanna Division 2 leader Wallenpaupack ran its winning streak to four games to join the rankings in sixth.

Abington Heights, the former No. 5 team, lost to unranked Valley View and fell out of the rankings.

Dunmore is followed by Lake-Lehman, Montrose and Holy Redeemer in the Small Schools.

They combined to go 7-1 with the only loss coming when Holy Redeemer lost, 39-36, to Delone Catholic (13-1) in a showcase at Lancaster Catholic.

Riverside beat Old Forge, 40-34, for its third straight win before losing to Dunmore, 65-36, in a game for the Lackawanna Division 3 lead. The Lady Vikes took the No. 5 spot away from Old Forge, which dropped to sixth.

Wyoming Seminary, which had been sixth, split its games and fell out of the rankings.

The full rankings, with records and previous rankings:

RIVERFRONT SPORTS SUPER SIX BASKETBALL POWER RANKINGS

BIG SCHOOL BOYS

RankTeamW-LLast Rank
  1Abington Heights11-1  1
  2Dallas11-1  3
  3Valley View10-2  2
  4Pittston Area  8-4  5
  5Hazleton Area  8-4  6
  6Nanticoke10-5 NR

SMALL SCHOOL BOYS

RankTeamW-LLast Rank
  1Holy Redeemer11-2  1
  2Holy Cross  8-3  3
  3Mid Valley  9-3  2
  4Riverside  9-3  5
  5Old Forge  9-2  4
  6Blue Ridge  9-1  6

BIG SCHOOL GIRLS

RankTeamW-LLast Rank
  1Scranton Prep10-1  1
  2Pittston Area13-0  2
  3Hazleton Area11-2  3
  4Wilkes-Barre Area11-2  4
  5Wyoming Valley West  9-3  6
  6Wallenpaupack10-3 NR

SMALL SCHOOL GIRLS

RankTeamW-LLast Rank
  1Dunmore  9-2  1
  2Lake-Lehman  8-4  2
  3Montrose  9-2  3
  4Holy Redeemer  7-7  4
  5Riverside  6-6 NR
  6Old Forge  8-3  5

Follow us on social media