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Wyoming Area’s Sarah Holweg breaks scoring record against Dallas as Warriors advance to District 2 semifinals

Residents and workers invited to complete survey on qualities they want in next Luzerne County manager

Misericordia is in. Wilkes is right on the edge. And for the second straight season, King&#8217;s will try to shut the door on the Colonels&#8217; postseason hopes.Saturday marks the final day of the regular season in the Freedom Conference with one playoff berth still up for grabs. DeSales, Misericordia and Delaware Valley have already secured their spots with Wilkes aiming to hold off Manhattanville for the fourth and final bid.&#8220;We were picked fifth in the league (in the preseason coaches poll),&#8221; Cougars coach Willie Chandler said. &#8220;We weren&#8217;t a team that was picked to go to the playoffs. Now guys are excited.&#8221;The Colonels can join them with a win over rival King&#8217;s when they square off at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Marts Center.Easier said than done.King&#8217;s has knocked off Wilkes in this last game in each of the last three seasons. Though Wilkes beat the Monarchs 80-70 last month, many of the same starters are back from last February&#8217;s finale, when King&#8217;s won 83-76 to edge the Colonels for the final Freedom Conference tournament spot.The stage isn&#8217;t quite as dramatic on Saturday. Though King&#8217;s can tie Wilkes at 7-7 in the league standings with a victory, tiebreakers would prevent the Monarchs from earning a second straight trip to the conference tournament. The city rivals would have split their season series in that scenario, and the next tiebreaker is performance against the top teams in the conference.Both King&#8217;s and Wilkes are 0-2 against DeSales and 1-1 against Delaware Valley. The decisive factor would be Wilkes&#8217; 1-1 record against Misericordia. King&#8217;s lost both meetings with the Cougars.In the event of a three-way tie between King&#8217;s, Manhattanville and Wilkes, it would be Manhattanville that would snatch the No. 4 seed &#8212; again because of record against Misericordia.Fortunately for the Colonels, the Valiants are a game behind them in the standings. So even if Wilkes loses to King&#8217;s, the Colonels could still reach the playoffs for the first time in four years if Manhattanville falls to Misericordia on Saturday.And the Cougars still have plenty on the line themselves.Misericordia is locked into a semifinal matchup against Delaware Valley &#8212; a rematch of last season&#8217;s conference championship &#8212; but it remains to be seen where that game will be played.A win at Manhattanville would make the Cougars the No. 2 seed in next week&#8217;s tournament. Misericordia is tied with Delaware Valley at 8-5 in league play but holds the tiebreaker because of a 2-0 record against top seed DeSales.A Cougars loss coupled with a Delaware Valley win over last-place FDU-Florham on Saturday would instead shift the game to Doylestown. The Cougars and Aggies split their two meetings this winter with the road team winning both games.Regardless of the venue, Misericordia is eager to defend its conference title next week.&#8220;We&#8217;re ready,&#8221; Chandler said. &#8220;We&#8217;re playing well right now, we&#8217;re hitting that stride and I think we&#8217;re ready for the playoff run.&#8221;Closing with a winOn the women&#8217;s side, all three Luzerne County NCAA programs will miss the postseason for the third straight year. King&#8217;s was the last team to reach the Freedom Conference tournament back in 2013.The Lady Monarchs will play Wilkes in the first half of the doubleheader at the Marts Center on Saturday with tip-off set for 1 p.m.Misericordia closes out its campaign with a 1 p.m. game at Manhattanville. The Cougars improved by six games this season after winning just once in 2014-15 and coach Allison Kern said a little late-season success can help in a number of ways.&#8220;Our kids are looking at every day right now that we still have an opportunity to get better,&#8221; Kern said. &#8220;We still have an opportunity to set the table. We still have an opportunity to keep hammering nails and building.&#8220;So we don&#8217;t want to waste those. Every nail we don&#8217;t hammer now is one we have to hammer next year.&#8221;<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Freedom Conference men’s basketball race coming down to the wire