Pleasant Valley boys open up against Bangor

The District 11 boys basketball playoffs tip off tonight with three first round games on tap. Pleasant Valley travels to Bangor, Pocono Mountain East visits Emmaus and Stroudsburg is at Nazareth.

Class 4A Playoffs

BOYS

No. 10 Pleasant Valley (11-12 overall; 6-6 Mountain Valley Conference) vs. No 7 Bangor (20-3 overall; 16-0 Colonial League)

TIPOFF: Wednesday, Feb. 23rd at 7 p.m. at Bangor

COACHES: Pleasant Valley Ken Piontkowski; Bangor Bron Holland

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP: Pleasant Valley Mike Sharpe (Sr., 13.6 ppg), Nick Stanovick (Jr., 12.4), Eric Wild (Sr., 6.7), Rich Irving (Sr., 5.7), Brandyn Bok (Sr., 0.6); Bangor Andy Mulitsch (Sr., 6-0, 14.5 ppg), Matt Carey (Sr., 6-0, 12.1), Kerry Reider (Jr., 6-0, 10.0), Ben Ammermann (Sr., 6-1, 5.0), Alex Colton (So., 6-2, 5.3).

OFF THE BENCH: Pleasant Valley Marquis Brown (Fr., 2.9), Tevin Franklin (Jr., 6.1 ppg), John Guadagna (Jr., 2.0); Bangor AJ Bouch (Sr., 6-1, 6.4 ppg), Sean Altemose (Jr., 5-8, 6.1), Justin Ringland (Jr., 6-3, 5.8).

GAME NOTES: Pleasant Valley is back in the District 11 playoffs for the first time since 2006. Prior to 2006, the Bears had qualified for the post-season in 9 out of 10 seasons ..... Both Pleasant Valley and Bangor enter their first-round match-up losers of their respective conference semi-final contest. The Bears fell to Pocono Mountain West as most expected, but the Slaters were upset by Salisbury in overtime after going a perfect 16-0 in the Colonial League ..... Bangor's only other losses came to Nazareth (18-4) and Emmaus (15-7) ..... The two teams met earlier in the season, with the Slaters beating the Bears 59-47 in the Cougar Holiday Classic championship game in Hazleton. Andy Mulitsch had a game-high 16 points that night, including four of his 69 three-pointers on the year. Matt Carey and Kerry Reider added 15 and 14 points respectively. Pleasant Valley had three scorers in double figures in Nick Stanovick, Eric Wild and Mike Sharpe, but they only scored 13, 12 and 10 points each. The Bears were down just one at halftime, but got out-scored 15-5 in the third quarter and never got back into the game. Mulitsch, Ammermann, Carey, Reider, and Colton started and played most of the night. AJ Bouch did not play on that night, but could see extended minutes Wednesday.

QUOTABLE: "We will need to defend the perimeter and take care of the ball. Bangor shoots the ball very well and they are aggressive on defense. We must also dominate the boards and take advantage of our size, which will be harder to do than people think. They won 20 games and everyone knew that they were small all season. If we can do those things then I like our chances." Pleasant Valley head coach Ken Piontkowski.