The basketball postseason continues for District 2 teams Saturday with eight district semifinals, two subregional quarterfinals and one subregional semifinal.
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 district and subregional playoffs.
Robinson correctly predicted the winners in more than 90 percent of the games in the 2022 tournament and this year’s quarterfinals before slipping below that number when the semifinals began Friday. After handling the predictions throughout the early rounds, he will once again be joined by a panel of prognosticators for the championship games at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
DISTRICT 2 PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
By Tom Robinson
(Home teams in CAPS)
DISTRICT 2-4 CLASS 6A SUBREGIONAL BOYS SEMIFINAL
HAZLETON AREA by 1 over Scranton
CLASS 4A BOYS SEMIFINALS
VALLEY VIEW by 14 over Tunkhannock
SCRANTON PREP by 9 over Nanticoke
CLASS 2A BOYS SEMIFINALS
HOLY CROSS by 43 over Mountain View
BLUE RIDGE by 12 over Elk Lake
DISTRICT 2-11 CLASS A QUARTERFINALS
MMI PREP by 11 over Lehigh Christian
Bethlehem Christian by 9 over Susquehanna
CLASS 5A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
PITTSTON AREA by 14 over Scranton
Abington Heights by 3 over WALLENPAUPACK
CLASS 3A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
DUNMORE by 27 over Mid Valley
LAKE-LEHMAN by 5 over Holy Redeemer
WHAT TO EXPECT
The best game of the day could be a late-charging Scranton boys team trying to get back to the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza to defend its Class 6A Subregional title when it goes to Hazleton Area.
There are multiple rematches with the best of them possibly Abington Heights trying to avenge a surprisingly, one-sided, 17-point loss to Wallenpaupack earlier this month that jump-started the Lady Buckhorns’ run to the Lackawanna League Division 2 title.
Despite that earlier result, the prediction here is for that game to produce the day’s only road win.
Another potentially tight game is Lake-Lehman’s attempt to beat Holy Redeemer in a playoff setting for the third time in 15 days after the teams split in the regular season. Lake-Lehman jumped on Holy Redeemer early in both the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 and overall championship games, but the teams played on even terms after those dominant starts.
The Blue Ridge boys are fighting a trend as they try to beat Elk Lake for the fourth straight time. Each of the three previous meetings has gotten closer with Blue Ridge winning by 22, 10 and then just 5.
Dunmore and Mid Valley finished 1-2 in Lackawanna League Division 3, but the teams were separated by 35 and 21 points in their league meetings.
RECAP
Friday’s predictions were correct on just six of nine games, with the West Scranton boys providing a loss for the second time in four days. The Williamsport girls and Old Forge girls were the other teams that won after being predicted here to lose.
Friday’s boys picks: 3-1 (75.0 percent)
Friday’s girls picks: 3-2 (60.0 percent)
Friday’s total picks: 6-3 (66.7 percent)
Total boys picks: 17-2 (89.5 percent)
Total girls picks: 15-3 (83.3 percent) with 1 exact margin.
Total picks: 32-5 (86.5 percent) with 1 exact margin.
