It is hard to believe that February is here and there are just two weeks left in the Lackawanna League girls basketball regular season. That means the division races are heading down the stretch and teams are looking to secure the best possible seed for the District 2 playoffs.

This week could go a long way to determining both.

In Division I, North Pocono, Abington Heights and Scranton Prep are all 8-2 and Valley View is 7-3. On Tuesday, North Pocono visits Abington Heights in the annual Pink Game and Valley View travels to Scranton Prep. Then Friday, Scranton Prep heads to Abington Heights, North Pocono is at West Scranton and Valley View entertains Delaware Valley.

Scranton Prep is coming off victories over North Pocono and Scranton in a less-than-48-hour span that moved it into a first-place tie. The Classics have won eight straight Division I titles.

“Now we still control our own destiny,” Scranton Prep coach Bob Beviglia said. “If we had lost (Friday), it would have been really hard having three losses and North Pocono only having one. Now, with us, North Pocono and Abington having two losses, if we can figure out a way to win the rest of our games, it doesn’t matter what North Pocono does, we’d still be in a playoff at the end at the very least.

“That’s a huge thing for us. We talk about winning the league from Day 1. The kids understand what the legacy has been here in terms of that.”

The win over North Pocono also moved Scranton Prep (13-5 overall) into the No. 1 spot in the District 2 Class 4A standings with a power ranking of .705. Valley View (14-4) is second with a ranking of .698, Honesdale (15-3) is third with a .677 ranking and Nanticoke Area (16-4) is fourth with a .676 ranking.

“I said to the kids, it doesn’t matter one or two. But we want to be in the top two so we’re playing a home game in the semifinals,” Beviglia said. “Then whatever happens at the arena happens. So we still kind of have an eye on that. But the first priority is to win the league.”

North Pocono (14-4, .715) is third in the Class 5A district standings and Abington Heights (13-5, .714) is fourth. Dallas (18-2, .781) is first and Crestwood (19-2, .764) is second.

Things in Division II won’t likely be decided until next week when Dunmore (10-0) heads to Honesdale (9-1) on Feb. 10. Both teams will have to survive their games this week to get to that matchup. The Lady Bucks, whose league winning streak is at 104 games, host Mid Valley on Tuesday and visit Holy Cross on Friday. The Lady Hornets welcome Riverside on Tuesday and head to Mid Valley on Friday.

Dunmore (15-3, .717) leads the Class 3A district standings ahead of Lake-Lehman (12-7, .613), Holy Redeemer (13-6, .608), Riverside (10-8, .537) and Montrose (11-7, .484).

Speaking of Montrose, the Lady Meteors (9-1) trail Mountain View (10-0) by one game in the Division III standings. Those teams are scheduled to play Friday at Montrose. First, though, they must get through Tuesday’s games. The Lady Eagles host Elk Lake (7-3) and the Lady Meteors go to Blue Ridge.

Mountain View (13-5, .589) leads the Class 2A district standings. Wyoming Seminary (12-6, .580) is second, followed by Elk Lake (11-6, .531) and Holy Cross (10-8, .525).

As far as the Class 6A standings go, Hazleton Area (18-2) is first with a .809 power ranking. Delaware Valley (11-7, .612) is second and Scranton (7-11, .572) is third.

Susquehanna is the lone Lackawanna League team in the Class 1A tournament, which is a subregional with District 11. The Lady Sabres (3-14, .272) are fourth behind Bethlehem Christian (13-3, .539), Salem Christian (7-9, .305) and Weatherly (5-13, .287).

Stat leaders

With two weeks remaining, here is a look at some of the league’s statistical leaders:

The top three scorers reside in Division III. Addison Kilmer of Mountain View, who last week became the 11th Lackawanna League girls player to surpass 2,000 career points, is first with 30.1 points per game. Abigail Gelinger from Blue Ridge is second with 25.1 points and Lackawanna Trail’s Ayla Seigle is third with 20.8 points. Emma Coleman of Abington Heights is first in Division I and fourth in the league with 20.5 points. Cora Castellani from Valley View is second in the division and fifth in the league at 18.7 points. The leading scorer in Division II is Riverside’s Faith Pavalonis with 15.6 points, which is 10th in the league. Khloe Mistishin of Western Wayne and Ruby Martin from Honesdale are tied for second in the division with 11.6 points and 16th in the league.

Coleman is the league’s top free-throw shooter at .804 (74 for 92), based on a minimum of 2.5 attempts per game. North Pocono’s Ella Clementoni is second at .800 (40 for 50). Seigle is third at .795 (58 for 73), followed by Kilmer at .789 (90 for 114), Pavalonis at .767 (79 for 103) and West Scranton’s Aubrey Kerrigan at .757 (53 for 70).

Castellani leads in 3-pointers with 47. Gelinger is second with 44, Kilmer third with 41, Scranton’s Chrissy Jacklinski fourth with 40 and Clementoni fifth with 36. Rounding out the top 10 are Scranton Prep’s Shannon Bestrycki with 30; Mia Tallo of West Scranton, Lila Kolcharno from Holy Cross and Forest City’s Kayla Pecko each with 28; Morgan Baumgardner of West Scranton and Amanda Dempsey from Dunmore with 27 apiece.