District 11 tourney schedules released

Talk about a tough act to follow. The league tournaments that featured six title games in three venues over a span of about 27 hours was breathtaking.

At Allentown’s PPL Center Thursday night, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference brought high drama for an arena known for ice hockey, concerts and monster truck shows.

The EPC girls championship went overtime and ended with a stunning 52-49 Allentown Central Catholic victory over previously unbeaten Easton.

The EPC boys final that followed featured ACCHS blowing a 16-point lead, falling behind by three, and then regrouping for a riveting 61-54 win over Pocono Mountain West.

As compelling as that doubleheader was, it may have been topped by Friday night’s Colonial League twin bill at Freedom and the Schuylkill League championship games at Pottsville’s Martz Hall.

At Freedom, the Northwestern Lehigh won its third straight girls title with a 31-30 nail biter over rival Palmerton.

That was followed by Notre Dame-Green Pond going two overtimes to hold off an upset-minded Saucon Valley team, 45-42, for its first league gold since 2014.

At Pottsville, North Schuylkill held off Marian Catholic 56-52 in the girls game and Blue Mountain got a 3-pointer in the final seconds by Aidan Grace to beat North Schuylkill 57-54.

That’s six league championship games decided by a combined total of 21 points.

So, maybe it’s good there are no games for nearly a week before the District 11 tournament begins because players, coaches, fans and everyone associated with high school hoops probably needs to take a breath.

Once this much-needed break ends, 71 teams — 38 boys and 31 girls — will compete for either district or subregional titles. A subregional is when schools from outside the district get to join the mix because of low numbers in their own district.

In addition to vying for gold medals, the teams will also try to

secure one of 33 available state tournament berths.

In the boys tournament, three teams will advance in five of the six classifications. Just two will move on in 2A.

In the girls tournament, only two teams will advance in 5A and 3A and three move on in the other classifications.

Because no bracket features more than eight teams, no pigtail-round games will be needed before the quarterfinals.

As in the past, the tournament will follow a Friday-Tuesday-Friday pattern for the 2A, 4A and 5A boys brackets and the 6A, 3A and 1A girls and a Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday pattern for the 6A, 3A and 1A boys and the 2A, 4A and 5A girls tourneys.

The defending boys champs are Parkland (6A), Pottsville (5A), Bethlehem Catholic (4A), Executive (3A), Shenandoah Valley (2A) and Nativity BVM (1A) while last year’s girls champs were Parkland (6A), Bethlehem Catholic (5A), Jim Thorpe (4A), Palmerton (3A), Minersville (2A) and Marian Catholic (1A).

As has been the case since the pandemic, all tickets sales are online by going to https://districtxi.hometownticketing.coms. There are no cash sales. Tickets cost $7. Seniors 65 & over get in for free with proof of age.

Here are the brackets: