Playoffs next as thrilling regular season wraps up
There’s nothing quite like single-elimination basketball to get the blood pumping from the stands and the sidelines. It’s why March Madness is the most anticipated postseason format in all of sports.
This season’s league and district girls tournaments in the Lehigh Valley should be an excellent appetizer to the NCAA Tournament as 14 of the area’s best teams will face off for a pair of trophies beginning Friday.
All four of the first-round hosts in the EPC will have their work cut out for them just to make it to PPL Center after nine teams finished 10-6 or better in an incredibly competitive year in the conference.
Top-seeded Bethlehem Catholic dropped its first game of the season on Monday and has no time to pout as Emmaus, winners of eight of its last nine, will provide quite the quarterfinal test.
Easton, fresh off that victory over Becahi that clinched the second seed, will face the team that defeated it in the EPC championship game last season, Allentown Central Catholic, who just got one of the league’s best players back from injury in Molly Driscoll.
Parkland only lost one league game all season, in overtime against Easton, and somehow dropped to the three-seed to face off with five-time district champion Rich Bickert and the Nazareth Blue Eagles.
No. 4 Pocono Mountain West versus No. 5 Liberty is the fourth and final quarterfinal, creating a rematch from a little over a month ago that Liberty won 55-43. Although they’ll likely be without leading scorer Ava Kopetskie, the Hurricanes are riding a three-game winning streak into the postseason and have all the confidence in the world.
“The girls deserve a championship and that’s what they’re playing for. They want to make some history,” Liberty coach Jarrett Carnes said following Monday’s win over Nazareth.
Palmerton completed an undefeated regular season this week to earn the top overall seed in the Colonial League playoffs with Notre Dame-GP earning another bye after finishing 11-1 in the East division.
An unfortunate injury bug crippled Bangor down the stretch and opened the door for Catasauqua to creep into the picture as the sixth and final seed in the league tournament. The Rough Riders begin their underdog campaign on Saturday at Pen Argyl, who holds the longest winning streak in the league at 14 games.
The winner will take on Notre Dame-GP next Wednesday at a site to be determined.
Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh will meet for the third time this season after splitting the regular season series for a chance to face Palmerton in the second act of the doubleheader next Wednesday.
Regardless of how these tournaments shake out, they promise to host a thrilling race for conference superiority over the next week.
Stories of the Week History for the Huskies:
The District 11 website doesn’t go back far enough to find the last time Dieruff girls basketball qualified for the district playoffs outside of the 2020 COVID-19 season. Saturday’s win over Pocono Mountain East changed that.
After missing out by one game last year, longtime coach Cathy Piston and the Huskies finally broke through this year with a 12-10 record. Aniya Holder led all scorers with 15 points in the playoff-clinching victory and is one of four players with 100 points or more on the season.
PM West seals EPC North title:
The two matchups between Pocono Mountain West and Stroudsburg were decided by a combined four points, but it was the Panthers who emerged victorious in both. Monday’s 50-47 win over the Mounties clinched a division title and the fourseed in the EPC playoffs for first-year coach Jim Dempsey. They’ll host red-hot Liberty at home as their reward and ended their rival’s EPC playoff hopes in the process.
Senior nights to remember:
East Stroudsburg South’s Layla Hernandez was one of the top players in the EPC North division until a knee injury ended her season after only eight games. On her senior night, she was able to take the court one final time as East Stroudsburg North graciously allowed her to score for the last time in a Cavalier uniform.
Her team returned the favor for another star in their division, Pleasant Valley’s Aryn Stivala, who was one of the leading scorers in the EPC until an injury against Allentown Central Catholic ended her season as well. Stivala finished a tremendous season in memorable fashion with a basket on her senior night.
Standout players Hannah Barry, Palmerton:
The top-seeded Blue Bombers completed an undefeated regular season with their star player at her best in four wins this week. It started with a 22-point effort against Southern Lehigh and finished with 15 more against a surging Northern Lehigh team that can upset anyone on any given night.
Layla Sweatte, Allen:
Sweatte finished out her senior season as the area’s leading scorer and the only girls player to average 20 or more points in the regular season (21.2). A 19-point effort against Northampton helped the Canaries finish a terrific year on a positive note in a 40-33 win.
Rachel Yost, Northampton:
There might not have been a better 3-point shooter in the area to close out the season than Rachel Yost. Northampton finished strong with two wins in its last three games due to Yost’s brilliance from beyond the arc in the wins. The senior buried 11 3-pointers against Whitehall and Allen, leading the team in scoring in both with a combined 35 points.
Player of the Week Ellie Wallbillich, Pen Argyl:
With two more outstanding performances and 27 points in an upset win over Notre Dame, Wallbillich is the first to go back-to-back in our player of the week honors. The Green Knights have won an area-best 14 games in a row heading into the postseason and their all-time leading scorer is a huge reason why. If Wallbillich can keep playing the way she is right now, it’ll be hard for anyone to stop her and the Green Knights in the upcoming Colonial League playoffs.
Other notes
The Cole sisters, Evalyse and Lianna, shined in Easton’s season-ending
win over Becahi to secure the two-seed in the EPC tournament. Lianna scored a career-high 10 points in the win while her sister added 14. … Talia Zurinskas and Madi Siggins closed out the regular season strong with impressive wins over Emmaus and Central. Zurinskas led the way with 19 points against the Green Hornets while Siggins was close behind with 18. … Liberty went on the road and upset Nazareth to finish the regular season on a three-game winning streak and earn the fifth seed in the EPC playoffs. Emma Pukszyn was outstanding on both ends of the floor for the Hurricanes while Ruby Miller and Anijah Davis stepped up in the absence of Ava Kopetskie with 28 combined points. … Emmaus won on the final day of the season to jump Stroudsburg and enter the EPC playoffs as the eighth seed. Freshman Kayla Snyder was the spark in a 44-39 win over Whitehall with seven free throws and 14 points for the Green Hornets. …