EPC, Colonial League tourney preview

It has been a boys basketball season filled with milestones. Players such as Emmaus’ Will Barber and Palmerton’s Brayden Hosier reached 1,000 points. Parkland’s Nick Coval became his school’s all-time scoring leader. Pat Boyle, Notre Dame-Green Pond’s coach, reached 500 career wins. All were accompanied with nice celebrations.

But those celebrations will likely pale in comparison to the ones that will come with league championship victories.

Next Thursday night, PPL Center in downtown Allentown will host a girl-boy championship doubleheader followed the next night by a championship twin bill at Freedom, and the trophy and medal presentations and the accompanying array of picture-taking are something that those involved will remember for a long time, if not forever.

The season had a few surprises, not all of them on the court. Perhaps the biggest unexpected moment came at Palmerton where coach Ken Termini resigned after a few of his players attended a school board meeting and asked for his ouster. Joe Egan is the interim coach.

That coaching change provides the backdrop for what could be a compelling Colonial League tournament where the Blue Bombers figure to have a shot at the program’s first-ever Colonial championship and first league title of any kind since a Centennial League crown in 1989.

In the EPC, the teams that were expected to do well lived up to their billing. Parkland, Pocono Mountain West, Allentown Central Catholic, Liberty and Emmaus are the top five seeds and are all repeat EPC tourney participants.

If there’s a surprise in the EPC tourney, it’s in who is not involved. Bethlehem Catholic had made the tournament seven consecutive seasons — there was no league tournament in 2021 due to the pandemic — and won the championship in 2018 and 2018, but did not qualify this season in large part because of major knee injuries suffered by three players.

Freedom and East Stroudsburg South, who also made the tournament last year, are not involved in the eight-team EPC field this season.

Here’s a look at who’s involved and who expect: