Pittston Area, Wyoming Area, and Old Forge all earned the home court for their first District 2 boys basketball playoff games.
Official pairings and schedules had not been released as of presstime, but final boys’ standings were posted on the district website, and tournament formats had been released earlier, allowing the matchups to be determined.
Pittston Area finished third in Class 5A with an 11-11 record, earning a Tuesday quarterfinal home game with Wallenpaupack. The Buckhorns are 8-14 and the last seed in the six-team field.
If the Patriots win, they advance to Friday’s semifinal at second-seeded Crestwood. The Comets took a 16-7 record into Saturday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament final and have earned a district quarterfinal bye.
Abington Heights, which went unbeaten within Lackawanna League Division 1, is the top seed at 17-5 and has the other bye.
Wyoming Area edged defending champion Valley View for the third seed in the field of eight teams in Class 4A, which qualified out of 12 teams competing for spots. The Warriors are 20-3, but their third loss in the WVC Tournament semifinals did not count against their district playoff power rating.
The Warriors will begin the tournament Wednesday at home against sixth-seeded Tnkhannock (10-12). A win would likely mean a Saturday semifinal trip to second-seeded Scranton Prep (17-5), assuming the Cavaliers get past seventh-seeded Honesdale (8-14).
Dallas, which took a 20-3 record into Saturday’s WVC Tournament final, is the top seed.
All four quarterfinal winners will get two shots at reaching the state tournament. The Class 4A boys tournament is the only one in District 2 that qualifies three teams for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament.
Old Forge (16-6) earned the top seed and only quarterfinal bye in the seven-team Class 2A tournament, where it is the top seed.
The Blue Devils are rolling going into the tournament. They have won three straight, including Monday’s 70-60 victory that prevented Dunmore (19-3) from being part of a first-place tie in Lackawanna League Division 2. The only Old Forge loss in the last six games came 63-61 to Riverside, which won the division and is 21-1 overall.
Old Forge is waiting to open the tournament Saturday with a semifinal home game against the winner between fifth-seeded Wyoming Seminary (8-14) and fourth-seeded Blue Ridge (10-11).
All games except the finals at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza will be played on the home court of the higher seed.
Girls basketball
Pittston Area, Wyoming Area, and Old Forge will all open the district tournament on the road.
Pittston Area is the fifth seed of seven teams in Class 5A.
The Lady Patriots (13-9) take a five-game winning streak to fourth-seeded Abington Heights (14-8)on Wednesday.
A win would send Pittston Area to top-seeded Crestwood, which was 21-2 into Saturday’s WVC Tournament final.
Wyoming Area (8-14) is fifth of eight teams in Class 4A, where it will open Wednesday at fourth-seeded Honesdale (16-6). If the Lady Warriors can pull off an upset, they would likely go to top-seed and defending champion Scranton Prep, which was 17-5 going into Saturday’s Lackawanna League Division 1 championship game.
The only girls tournament that had some uncertainty going into Saturday was Class 2A, where Old Forge was scheduled to play Blue Ridge in a non-league, regular-season finale.
Going into Saturday, Old Forge was 6-15 and seventh behind Forest City (9-13). It was unclear whether a win over Blue Ridge (10-11) would be enough to bump the Lady Devils up a spot.
If Old Forge remained seventh, it would open Tuesday at second-seeded Mountain View, the defending district champion, the current Lackawanna League Division 3 champion, and a team seeking its fourth straight trip to the state Final Four.
Wrestling
The District 2 Individual Wrestling Championships are Friday and Saturday at Wilkes-Barre Area.
Both boys’ and girls’ Class 3A and 2A will be contested there, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
Swimming and diving
District 2 will conduct the diving portion of its swimming championships Saturday at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center.
Swimming events will be contested the following weekend.
