There is no question as to which District 11 girls’ basketball class is the strongest this season.
Bethlehem Catholic, which beat Central Catholic 65-33 in the Lehigh Valley Conference championship game, and Northwestern, which defeated Southern Lehigh 48-38 in the Colonial League title game, are all in the Class AAA field.
If everything falls into place after Saturday’s quarterfinal round, we’ll have an all-Lehigh Valley school semifinal round on Wednesday with top-seeded Becahi playing No. 5 Southern Lehigh and No. 2 Northwestern playing No. 3 Central Catholic.
Southern Lehigh must first get by No. 4 North Schuylkill on Saturday while Becahi (vs. Saucon Valley), Northwestern (vs. Blue Mountain) and Central Catholic (vs. Palmerton) will all be heavily favored to advance to the semifinals.
The winners of the semifinal games will not only get a chance to win a district title but will also clinch a berth in the PIAA playoffs which crowns one state champion in four classes.
Mountain Valley Conference champion Pocono Mountain West is the top-seeded team in Class AAAA and plays Emmaus in Friday night's quarterfinal round. Pleasant Valley, the No. 4 seed, plays No. 5 Pocono Mountain East with the winners of those two games meeting in Tuesday’s semifinals.
On the other side of the AAAA bracket, Nazareth, the No. 2 seed, plays No. 7 Northampton and No. 3 Parkland plays No. 11 Bangor in Friday night's quarterfinal round with the winners meeting in the semifinals on Tuesday.
The class AAAA semifinal winners will clinch a berth in the PIAA playoffs while the losers will meet in a consolation game to give class AAAA three teams in the state tournament.
Minersville, the top-seeded team in Class AA, awaits the winner of Friday night's quarterfinal game between No. 4 Pen Argyl and No. 5 Notre Dame in Tuesday’s semifinal round. Salisbury, the No. 2 seed, and No. 3 Pine Grove have byes before meeting in the semifinals where the winner will qualify for the PIAA playoffs.
Marian Catholic, the No. 1 seed in class A, plays No. 8 Lehigh Valley Christian in Saturday’s quarterfinal round. The only other team from The Express-Times region in the Class A field, No. 4 seed Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg, plays No. 5 Williams Valley.
The Class A semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday.
The Class AAAA and AA championship games, along with the AAAA consolation game, will be played on Feb. 28 at times and sites to be determined. The Class AAA and A titles games will be played on March 1 at times and sites to be determined.