The quarterfinals of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament are scheduled to be played Friday and Saturday.
NEPASportsNation.com editor Tom Robinson, who covers and writes about District 2 basketball for the website, is once again predicting the outcomes of games throughout the state tournament after also picking all the games in the District 2 tournament.
Robinson’s predictions for games scheduled for Friday and Saturday’s games are below.
PIAA PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
By Tom Robinson
CLASS 5A QUARTERFINAL BOYS GAME
Imhotep Charter by 6 over Abington Heights
CLASS 2A QUARTERFINAL BOYS GAME
Holy Cross by 3 over Christopher Dock
CLASS 4A QUARTERFINAL GIRLS GAME
Scranton Prep by 7 over Trinity
CLASS 3A QUARTERFINAL GIRLS GAME
Dunmore by 3 over Lake-Lehman
CLASS 2A QUARTERFINAL GIRLS GAME
Montrose by 1 over Faith Christian
CLASS A QUARTERFINAL GIRLS GAME
Meadowbrook Christian by 4 over Mountain View
WHAT TO EXPECT
After postponements condensed the District 2 portions of the first- and second-round schedules, it looks like this time, the quarterfinal games will be split over two days with the Dunmore/Lake-Lehman girls game, Abington Heights boys and Montrose girls playing Friday night, then the Holy Cross boys, Scranton Prep girls and Mountain View girls playing Saturday.
District 2 teams went 13-8 (.619 winning percentage) in the first round and 7-6 (.538) in the second round. The second round produced an overtime contest, a buzzer-beater, a chance to go for a buzzer-beater in the last five seconds and other tighter finishes than the first round.
Just as the games got closer – and tougher to predict – from the first round to the second, expect that trend to continue as the teams move deeper into state play.
The Abington Heights and Holy Cross boys run into teams ranked first in the state in their classes by TribHSSN.triblive.com. The Montrose and Mountain View girls meet teams in the top five in the state in their classes.
Another set of rankings points to a close game at Scranton High School Friday night when No. 1 Dunmore and No. 2 Lake-Lehman meet in a game between the top two Small School girls teams in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Basketball Power Rankings of District 2 teams. They have been 1-2 all season, but sometimes in the opposite order, such as when Lake-Lehman beat Dunmore in an overtime, non-league game.
The match-ups and styles are right to make the state Class 3A girls quarterfinal everything it should be – the top girls game of the season in all of District 2.
RECAP
Lake-Lehman won for the second straight time as a slight underdog, at least according to these picks. It is the same spot the Lady Knights find themselves in this week. The Mountain View girls won and the Scranton Prep boys lost in the other games were projected incorrectly here.
PIAA second-round boys picks: 5-1 (83.3 percent)
PIAA second-round girls picks: 5-2 (71.4 percent)
Total PIAA second-round picks: 10-3 (76.9 percent)
Total PIAA boys picks: 14-2 (87.5 percent)
Total PIAA girls picks: 15-3 (83.3 percent)
Total PIAA picks: 29-5 (85.3 percent)
Total postseason boys picks: 43-8 (84.3 percent)
Total postseason girls picks: 42-8 (84.0 percent)
Total postseason picks: 85-16 (84.2 percent)
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE: Quarterfinal PIAA games for teams from District 2: Quarterfinal PIAA sites – NEPA Sports Nation.
