web1_122274767-1563bc173f74479d8381dc4231f17ae9.jpg

Sailor in iconic V-J Day Times Square kiss photo dies at 95

web1_1125OutdoorPhoto.jpg

Our view: Go slow on decision on Sunday hunting

When Wyoming Seminary takes the court on Tuesday, it will be the Blue Knights&#8217; third game in five days.Success does have its price.Seminary played Friday and Saturday in the new Wyoming Valley Conference Championships. On Tuesday, they play in the first round of the District 2 Class 3A boys basketball playoffs.&#8220;The weather didn&#8217;t help the (WVC) tournament,&#8221; said Seminary coach Pete Moses after his team won the WVC Championship on Saturday night. &#8220;We have to take off the mandatory PIAA day off (Sunday) so we&#8217;re going to have one day to prepare for a district playoff game. I hope next year the weather cooperates more, but it&#8217;s going to be a challenge for our guys.&#8220;On one token, it&#8217;s an absolute honor to be the first-ever Wyoming Valley Conference overall champion. On the other hand, our eye is on the district because winning this doesn&#8217;t exactly improve our chances to win the district. It doesn&#8217;t improve our seed. We&#8217;re already the one seed, it doesn&#8217;t get us a home game, it doesn&#8217;t get us anything (for districts). But we&#8217;re honored to be the first champion.&#8221;Crestwood, Hazleton Area and Nanticoke Area also participated in the WVC Championships. The field, though, wasn&#8217;t set until the WVC Division 1 and Division 2 title games were played last Wednesday. Since Holy Redeemer could have made the WVC Championships based on the outcome of the Division 1 game, the Royals were struck in neutral last week.So when Redeemer takes the court Tuesday in the D2-3A playoffs, it will be its first game in 10 days.&#8220;We were playing well and we&#8217;ve had a big layoff,&#8221; Redeemer coach Paul Guido said. &#8220;We got caught up there where we had a chance to get into championships if some things broke some ways. I didn&#8217;t have the opportunity to schedule a scrimmage for us. I think some teams did work out with other teams.&#8221;Instead, Redeemer held an intra-squad scrimmage and picked teams via fantasy draft. Guido refereed while the assistant coaches ran the teams.The Class 3A and 5A boys are up first with opening-round games on Tuesday. Class 2A and 4A play Wednesday, with Class A on Thursday and Class 6A not getting started until Saturday.CLASS 6A(1 team to states)Seedings: 1. Hazleton Area (16-7); 2. Williamsport (8-12); 3. Scranton (9-13); 4. Delaware Valley (9-13).Defending champ: Hazleton Area.Outlook: Hazleton Area returned just two starters &#8212; forward Da&#8217;Mir Faison and guard Sparky Wolk &#8212; from a squad that lost in overtime in last season&#8217;s PIAA 6A state semifinal. This season opened with three losses to very good opponents before the Cougars found their footing. However, they&#8217;ve stumbled at times due to inconsistency.Overall, Hazleton Area isn&#8217;t as strong as in the past. Considering the graduation losses, that was expected. But the four-team bracket can&#8217;t match past seasons&#8217; quality either.Williamsport has the best chance to knock off Hazleton Area. The Millionaires&#8217; record is deceiving because the schedule was loaded with quality teams. Scranton and Delaware Valley, though, have struggled down the stretch after OK starts to their seasons.Williamsport is from District 4, so if it wins the tournament the two District 2 teams who lost to the Millionaires will play March 4 for the D2-6A title. That winner won&#8217;t make the state tournament.CLASS 5A(3 teams to states)Seedings: 1. Abington Heights (20-2); 2. Crestwood (18-6); 3. Wallenpaupack (16-6); 4. Dallas (13-9); 5. Pittston Area (13-9); 6. Honesdale (12-10); 7. West Scranton (6-16); 8. North Pocono (5-17).Defending champion: Abington Heights.Outlook: Defending PIAA Class 5A champion Abington Heights brings a 15-game winning streak into the tournament. The Comets&#8217; only losses were 57-46 to Pottsville on Dec. 15 and 56-48 on Dec. 21 to Emmaus. Pottsville is 19-3 and the top seed in the D11-5A playoffs. Emmaus is 18-4 and the first seed in the D11-6A playoffs.Crestwood has been one of the most consistent programs in the WVC, yet it hasn&#8217;t been able to get over the hump in districts. Crestwood&#8217;s last state appearance was in the 2008-09 season when it won the D2-3A title. The Comets were bounced in the semifinals the past two seasons.Part of the reason Crestwood hasn&#8217;t made states for so long is because the Comets have often run into a hot dark horse team in districts. That&#8217;s where Dallas and Pittston Area reside this season.Dallas had to replace five starters and its top two reserves from a state qualifier. The results were predictable &#8212; a 3-5 start before the team righted itself after the new year. The Mountaineers are the only WVC team to defeat Crestwood and Hazleton Area, which tied atop WVC Division 1 during the regular season.The Mountaineers are a very young team with just one senior on the roster.Pittston Area is also young and that&#8217;s shown all season. The pendulum has swung rapidly. The Patriots lost by 30 to Dallas and three weeks later defeated the Mountaineers by five. They pushed Hazleton Area to overtime in the first meeting then were blown off the court 69-32 in the rematch.Dallas and Pittston Area meet in the first round in the most intriguing opener of districts.Wallenpaupack has won six of its last seven. The bottom half of the field is filled with probable one-and-done candidates. Honesdale was a few points away from a losing record. West Scranton has lost 12 of its last 13. North Pocono hasn&#8217;t won since Jan. 18.CLASS 4A(3 teams to states)Seedings: 1. Scranton Prep (19-3); 2. Nanticoke Area (19-6); 3. Valley View (14-8); 4. GAR (15-8); 5. Western Wayne (12-10); 6. Tunkhannock (13-9); 7. Hanover Area (10-12); 8. Meyers (7-15).Defending champion: Scranton Prep.Outlook: Meyers draws the toughest opener as it tries to knock off Scranton Prep, which is going for its fifth consecutive district championship. The Mohawks had a brutal schedule to start the season, resulting in a 1-9 record. They are 4-2 over their last six games, with the losses to Nanticoke Area by one point and GAR by two in overtime.Nanticoke Area needs to proceed cautiously against Hanover Area despite defeating the Hawkeyes 50-34 during the WVC season. This is a rivalry game, and Hanover Area would like nothing better than to crush the Trojans&#8217; championship dreams.Tunkhannock is paced by volume scorer Tyler Faux, who averaged 19.6 points and hit 48 3-pointers in 17 WVC games. The Tigers, though, have been streaky. They defeated eventual Division 2 champion Nanticoke Area by a point and two days later won by a point against Berwick, which finished 1-21. So they&#8217;re capable of defeating Valley View depending on which version of the Tigers shows up. Then again, Valley View has a pair of two-point losses to Scranton Prep on its resume, proving it&#8217;s capable of winning it all.GAR could be playing its final game in school history as the sports programs will merge with Coughlin and Meyers next school year. The Grenadiers aren&#8217;t very deep and that could spell trouble along the way. They get Western Wayne, which followed up a five-game winning streak with a six-game losing streak.CLASS 3A(2 teams to states)Seedings: 1. Wyoming Seminary (22-2); 2. Holy Redeemer (18-3); 3. Mid Valley (18-4); 4. Lakeland (14-8); 5. Dunmore (11-11); 6. Carbondale (11-11); 7. Riverside (9-13); 8. Lake-Lehman (6-16).Defending champion: Wyoming Seminary.Outlook: Wyoming Seminary and Holy Redeemer have a excellent chance of heading back to states.Seminary won its second consecutive WVC Division 3 title and has four starters back from the defending district champion &#8212; Jeremy Callahan, Nick Ganter, Dimitri Gnall and Todd Phillips. Redeemer returned just two starters who played in last season&#8217;s title game, Collin Cook and Nick Prociak.Mid Valley has an impressive record, but its offense raises a red flag. The Spartans scored under 40 points in four wins, including a 28-26 victory over West Scranton. They failed to scored over 40 points in three losses.Lake-Lehman tripled its victory total from a season ago and is back in district for the first time since District 2 eliminated an open tournament after the 2015-16 season. The Black Knights, though, run into Seminary in the quarterfinals. Sem won both regular-season meetings 68-41 and 76-27.Seeds four through seven are from the Lackawanna League and none appear capable of matching up with Sem, Redeemer or Mid Valley.CLASS 2A(2 teams to states)Seedings: 1. Holy Cross (17-5); 2. Northwest (13-9); 3. Susquehanna (15-8); 4. Mountain View (11-12); 5. Lackawanna Trail (10-12); 6. Elk Lake (10-12); 7. Old Forge (7-15); 8. Blue Ridge (5-17).Defending champion: Holy Cross.Outlook: Northwest is the only WVC team in the tournament. The Rangers advanced to the title game last season and earned a state playoff berth. The team is led by four seniors &#8212; Bryce Koser, Tyler Stevens, Jaxson Yaple and Sam Saxe &#8212; who&#8217;ve endured several coaching changes to finally post a winning record.Holy Cross remains the class of the tournament. The Crusaders started 4-4 but have lost once since the calendar flipped to 2019. Mid Valley defeated Holy Cross 48-45 on Jan. 18.Susquehanna bumped up from Class A where the Sabers won the D11/2 Class A tournament last season. Mountain View might be capable of getting a state berth, but after that the odds get increasing worse for the remainder of the field.CLASS A(1 team to states)MMI Prep (8-14) is the only District 2 team in the six-team subregional with District 11. The Preppers open with Salem Christian (8-14), whose schedule was much weaker. Matt and Mason Marchetti have been MMI&#8217;s top scorers.MMI will probably get out of the first round but securing the only spot in states will be challenging. Notre Dame East Stroudsburg (15-5) appears a lock for the state berth.<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_TTL030218HSBB-Sem-Redeemer_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nick Prociak and his Holy Redeemer teammates will take the court for the first time in 10 days when they play Riverside in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL030218HSBB-Sem-Redeemer_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Nick Prociak and his Holy Redeemer teammates will take the court for the first time in 10 days when they play Riverside in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader&nbsp; </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL021719HSBB-Sem-Nanticoke_5-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Dimitri Gnall suffered a minor knee injury in Saturday night&#8217;s WVC Championship game. The Blue Knights have a quick turnaround as they play Lake-Lehman in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL021719HSBB-Sem-Nanticoke_5-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Dimitri Gnall suffered a minor knee injury in Saturday night&#8217;s WVC Championship game. The Blue Knights have a quick turnaround as they play Lake-Lehman in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader&nbsp; </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By John Erzarjerzar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</shirttailMeta></div>

Previewing all six brackets of the District 2 boys basketball playoffs