Panthers look for third straight against NS
The District 11 basketball playoffs get underway tonight with three opening round games. The Panther Valley boys will be one of the teams in action.
BOYS
Class AAA
No. 9 seed Panther Vy. (13-9; 5-7 Schuy. League) vs.
No. 8 seed No. Schuylkill (15-7, 7-5 Schuy. League)
TIPOFF: Tuesday, Feb.23 at 7 p.m. at North Schuylkill
COACHES: PV - Pat Crampsie (8th year); NS - Curt Ziegmont (7th year)
STARTING LINE-UPS: PV - Logan Stano (Sr., Forward, 12.8), Brock Mitchell (So., Center, 12.5 ppg), Kyle Picht (Sr., Guard, 3.1), Zach Stanko (Jr., Guard, 6.5), Damian Lewis (Sr., Forward, 7.7); NS - Steve Ennis (Sr., Guard, 22.1 ppg), Zach Hogan (Sr., Guard, 6.4), Kody Flail (Sr., Forward, 3.5), Gerard Anthony (Sr., Forward, 10.0), Nick Spotts (Sr., Forward, 2.0).
OFF THE BENCH: PV - Joe Revell (So., Guard, 3.6 ppg), Thad Ogozalek (So., Guard, 1.9), BJ Ahner (Sr., Forward, 1.4), Nate Mathewson (So., Forward, 1.0); NS - John Chernewski (Jr., Guard), Derek Dumboski (Jr., Forward), Tyler Skinner (Jr., Guard), Jake Rakowsky (So., Guard), Brandon McCloskey (So., Forward).
GAMES NOTES: Panther Valley and North Schuylkill both are Schuylkill League Division I members. Despite the fact that the Spartans finished two games ahead of PV in the league standings, the Panthers beat them twice during the regular season. Panther Valley won at home, 51-46, on Dec. 22 and then traveled to North Schuylkill on Jan. 26 and beat the Spartans, 48-47 ... Panther Valley got big games from leading scorer Logan Stano in both victories as he scored 17 and 13 points. Brock Mitchell, who is the Panthers' second-leading scorer this season, also had a big 14-point effort in the first win. The key for the Panthers in the wins over North Schuylkill, however, have been big contributions from unexpected sources. In the first win, Kyle Picht scored a season-high 10 points. In the second win, Zach Stanko had a season-high 14 points and reserve Joe Revell had 10 points his second highest scoring game of the season ... Steve Ennis, who led the Spartans and the Schuylkill League with a 22.1 points per game average this season, had 18 and 28 points in the two games against PV ... The Panthers had an early-season stretch where they won eight of nine games and started the season with an 8-3 record, but they have struggled down the stretch, going 1-4 in their last five games ... 14 of Panther Valley's 22 games came against teams that qualified for the District 11 playoffs. In those 14 games, the Panthers were 5-9. PV was 8-0 against teams that didn't make Districts ... This is Panther Valley's second straight year in D-11 playoffs after failing to qualify the previous eight seasons.
QUOTABLE: "We were fortunate enough to get a couple of wins off of them during the year. But, we're going up to their place so that makes it a little tougher. We're two evenly matched teams. So, I think you're going to see a real close game. It's probably a match-up that neither one of us wanted to see right off the bat but it is what it is."
