web1_Eric-Wruble-FB.jpg

Ex-fire company treasurer charged with theft waives hearing

web1_police-lights.jpg

Two people cited twice with trespassing

The Wyoming Valley Conference playoffs for the league&#8217;s first-ever overall girls basketball title has fans all in an uproar even before the opening tipoff.Mainly because the tournament has one team ticked off: Lake-Lehman.Specifically, Berwick gained the league&#8217;s wild card berth and entry into the field with the WVC&#8217;s three division champions, leaving the Black Knights shut out.&#8220;I thought our body of work was so much superior to Berwick&#8217;s,&#8221; a perplexed Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said &#8212; twice. &#8220;This was a goal for us, to be in that tournament. We&#8217;re kind of a victim of circumstances.&#8220;It&#8217;s tough.&#8221;Blame the complicated power rating system District 2 adopted this season and a couple of wintry blasts from Mother Nature for leaving the Black Knights and their frustrated fans feeling stunned, seething and slighted.The complicated system, used by a few other districts around the state, calculates points for wins and losses and factors in not only records of opponents, but also their state classification.That&#8217;s partly how Lehman missed out.The WVC decided to use the power ratings to determine its league wild card team, which looked good on paper from the start of the girls season almost to the end.And after playing its final regular season game Friday, Berwick held a slight points lead over Lehman, .696427 to .695086. But the Black Knights had one more game left, a makeup against Wyoming Area, and won it handily Saturday.Lehman figured that should be enough to earn a WVC playoff spot, and at the time it was &#8212; pushing Lehman&#8217;s power points past Berwick, .696518 to .696427.&#8220;I thought for sure, with that win, we&#8217;d be in,&#8221; Lavan said.But wait.Berwick picked up points without even playing.The Bulldogs gained a boost when Central Columbia, a team they beat earlier in the season won Saturday to finish 7-15 and picked up more points when a Downington East team that defeated them also won to finish 17-5.&#8220;We were quite unsure if we were going to be in it, right until we got the call,&#8221; Berwick coach Bill Phillips said. &#8220;We were waiting on pins and needles.&#8221;By the nose of a needle, those two victories by non-league opponents gave Berwick the points edge and WVC wild card advantage over Lehman, .697838-.696518.&#8220;We feel bad for Lake-Lehman,&#8221; District 2 chairman Frank Majikes said, &#8220;but we can&#8217;t change the power ratings. Not much we can do.&#8221;Actually, there was.With the District 2 tournaments opening later next week and snow in the forecast for this week, WVC officials wanted to complete the league tournament by this coming weekend. So they decided to cut off games entered into the power rating system by this past Sunday, despite some teams that would factor into it playing makeup games that were postponed by inclement weather earlier this season.&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t wait for (games of) this week,&#8221; Majikes said. &#8220;We had to get them (league playoff games) in before districts.&#8221;Here&#8217;s the kicker.When all is said and done, Lake-Lehman could wind up with the better power rating and pass Berwick for the No. 2 seed in the District 2 Class 4A playoffs. That&#8217;s because earlier this year, the Black Knights played 21-1 Scranton Prep, which has a makeup game remaining and could boost the Black Knights&#8217;s district seeding with a win.&#8220;I think Lehman could still finish ahead of Berwick,&#8221; said District 2 secretary Mike Ognoski, who made clear he didn&#8217;t create the power ratings system &#8212; &#8220;I just put the games into it.&#8220;They (the Black Knights) could get shut out of the league playoffs and end up ahead of Berwick. But the league can&#8217;t wait for that.&#8221;Berwick didn&#8217;t exactly back in.The Bulldogs finished the regular season at 18-4 overall, a game better than Lehman&#8217;s 17-5, and both tied for second place in the WVC Division 2 at 14-3, a game ahead of 13-4 Nanticoke Area.Lake-Lehman dominated Berwick in a 48-38 victory just last week, but lost to a Nanticoke Area team Berwick beat.In the end, that was probably the determining factor in the current power ratings.&#8220;I would think,&#8221; Ognoski said, &#8220;more than anything else, the biggest difference is Lehman lost to Nanticoke and Berwick beat Nanticoke.&#8221;What burns the Black Knights most, though, is the idea of using a ratings system installed to determine district slots that wasn&#8217;t quite complete in time to determine league playoff spots.&#8220;They shouldn&#8217;t be cutting anything off,&#8221; Lavan said. &#8220;That isn&#8217;t quite right. I know they have to get the (league) tournament in before districts. But if you&#8217;re going to use the ratings system, let the system play out. But if they can&#8217;t complete it in time for league playoffs, use a different system.&#8220;They could have went with a criteria of the next-best division record after the division champions get in for the wild card,&#8221; Lavan continued. &#8220;That would come down to us and Berwick. Both have the same division record, and we beat Berwick.&#8220;We&#8217;ve got some disappointment and we&#8217;ll use it was a motivational tool going into districts.&#8221;<style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL020719GBBLLBerwick3.jpeg-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Madison Borum (50) and Lake-Lehman barely lost out to Megan Dalo (24) and Berwick for the WVC girls basketball league wild card playoff spot by less little more than .001 percentage points when the league cut off the District 2 power ratrings system Sunday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL020719GBBLLBerwick3.jpeg-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Madison Borum (50) and Lake-Lehman barely lost out to Megan Dalo (24) and Berwick for the WVC girls basketball league wild card playoff spot by less little more than .001 percentage points when the league cut off the District 2 power ratrings system Sunday. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

Wild card dilemma: Berwick in, Lehman out for girls basketball playoffs