As expected, based on nonleague and tournament games, the Lackawanna League season is going to be filled with tight, competitive battles in the quest for division titles and seeding for the District 2 tournament.<\/p>\n
The energy and excitement will continue Friday night, with a focus on games featuring top-ranked teams in The Times-Tribune Boys Basketball Poll.<\/p>\n
In Division I, No. 2 Valley View (10-0 overall, 2-0 in division) is undefeated as it heads into a rivalry game with No. 3 Scranton Prep (7-2, 3-0), winners of six in a row, at the Xavier Center with a 6:45 p.m. tip.<\/p>\n
Valley View hasn\u2019t played since Saturday, as the Cougars\u2019 game against Wallenpaupack on Tuesday was postponed.<\/p>\n
This season, the Cougars have victories over Holy Cross, Old Forge and Mid Valley. They won the Turonis\/NBT Bank Holiday Classic over the holidays.<\/p>\n
A year after winning the District 2 Class 4A championship, reaching the PIAA semifinals and graduating its entire starting lineup, Valley View emerges as a contender again. Sophomore Cash Roe leads the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game, guard Michael Muto is averaging 11.4 points and 1.9 3-pointers per game and Noah Symuleski contributes 10.8 points per game.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep, last year\u2019s Division I champion, has an explosive offense. The Cavaliers scored more than 60 points six times, including a season-high 86 in a loss to Cathedral Prep in the season opener.<\/p>\n
In their three league games, the Cavaliers beat opponents by an average of 27.3 points per game.<\/p>\n
Senior sharpshooter Packy Doherty leads the division in scoring at 20.6 points per game. He has 955 points in his career. He scored 22 points in a 66-36 win over North Pocono on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Chicky Skoff averages 11.4 points per game, and Brody Martin contributes 10.6 points per game for the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep beat the Cougars six straight times, but Valley View snapped the streak with a 66-53 win in the District 2 Class 4A final last season. The two teams played in the district final in each of the last three seasons, with the Cavaliers winning twice.<\/p>\n
City rivalry<\/p>\n
Two teams trying to stabilize their seasons will clash in Division I.<\/p>\n
West Scranton (4-7, 1-2) takes on Scranton (4-6, 1-2) on Friday at 6:45 p.m. in their first of two meetings to determine supremacy in the city.<\/p>\n
Both teams have had some high points and are involved in the race for seeding in the District 2-4 Class 6A playoffs.<\/p>\n
Scranton has wins over Crestwood (10-3), which is leading the District 2 Class 5A power rating standings, and a 22-point win over Holy Cross at the Lynett Tournament.<\/p>\n
The Knights, however, lost two straight to division leaders Scranton Prep and Abington Heights. They averaged 45.5 points per game in the defeats.<\/p>\n
Senior Tony Battaglia leads Scranton with 17.9 points and 3.7 3-pointers per game. He is a four-year starter who scored 945 points in his career. He averaged 8.7 points per game against the Invaders in the last three seasons.<\/p>\n
West Scranton defeated Wallenpaupack in overtime last week to snap a 20-game losing streak in the league.<\/p>\n
Nate Schimelfenig is third in the division in scoring at 18.8 points and 2.4 3-pointers per game for the Invaders, and had 23 points in an overtime loss to Delaware Valley on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Scranton won the last four meetings in the series.<\/p>\n
Battle in the north<\/p>\n
Coming into the season, Lackawanna Trail, which made a run to the District 2 Class 2A final last season, was predicted to be a strong challenger for the Division III championship.<\/p>\n
Susquehanna, with returning all-stars Griffin Fisk and Mason Keyes, received votes from coaches as a team to watch.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Susquehanna (8-2, 3-0) plays at Lackawanna Trail (8-2, 3-0) in a game between two teams that share first place with Elk Lake (10-1, 3-0).<\/p>\n
Susquehanna, which has four straight wins, has firepower. Fisk leads the division at 21.6 points per game, while Keyes averages 15.8 points per game. In a win over Forest City, Fisk scored 29 points and had three 3-pointers, and Keyes had 11 points.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna Trail\u2019s losses came against Delaware Valley and Riverside, two teams that are ranked in the high school boys poll.<\/p>\n
Logan Seigle leads the Lions with 13.6 points per game. Jimmy Phillips contributes 11.5 points, and Lucas Filipek chips in 9.1.<\/p>\n
Last season, Lackawanna Trail defeated Susquehanna, 47-34, in the quarterfinals of the District 2 Class 2A playoffs to kickstart the run to the championship game against Old Forge and a PIAA Class 2A berth.<\/p>\n
Tight race<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of Dunmore\u2019s win over Riverside last Tuesday, the race for the Division II championship certainly grew tighter.<\/p>\n
Dunmore (10-1, 3-0) and Old Forge (8-2, 3-0) lead the standings. Riverside (10-1, 2-1) is a game back. The round-robin between the top teams doesn\u2019t resume until next week.<\/p>\n
Before that, Dunmore plays at home against Mid Valley, Old Forge is at home against Western Wayne and Riverside travels to Honesdale on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Dunmore and Riverside are also in pursuit of the top seed in the District 2 Class 3A playoff race.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Riverside (.752) maintains first place in the power rating standings. Dunmore (.723) is second, and Elk Lake (.653) is third. Holy Cross (.558) ended its four-game losing streak with a win over Mid Valley on Tuesday and holds third place.<\/p>\n
Players to watch
\n\u2022 Dunmore senior guard Nate Aviles, who scored 15 points in a win over Riverside on Tuesday night, celebrated by announcing his commitment to Elmira College via Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Holy Cross guard Jack Alpert knocked down four 3-pointers and scored 16 points in a 67-39 win over Mid Valley. It was the first time Holy Cross scored more than 60 points in a game since a 66-36 victory over Fannie Lou Hamer of Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 29.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Elk Lake\u2019s Brayden Miller scored 16 points in a 69-64 win over Blue Ridge. It was the Warriors\u2019 seventh straight victory, and Miller scored in double figures in four of the games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As expected, based on nonleague and tournament games, the Lackawanna League season is going to be filled with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-82071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}