Alrighty … I’ve been under the weather the last couple of days, so I haven’t been my usual chipper self. All apologies for that, but sometimes you just have to let yourself be sick, right?
Moving on …
A tip of the cap to Lancaster Country Day and to Lebanon Catholic.
Thanks to their exploits, we’ll have plenty of local angles in the District 3 Single-A title game, set for Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the Giant Center.
Country Day, which topped Scotland 44-42 on Kaitlyn Lukehart’s fadeaway jumper with 2.7 seconds to go in the semifinals, will be making its first trip to a district title game.
Lebanon Catholic?
Let’s just say the Beavers have been here before.
It’s been a few years (2005), but Lebanon Catholic will be shooting for its 14th Single-A crown.
I recently posted my story from Wednesday’s New Era on the Country Day game, plus roundups from the Lebanon Catholic game and Lebanon’s Triple-A consolation game vs. Muhlenberg. The Cedars won, and also locked up a spot in States.
And since the Triple-A playback round is the longest playback round in the history of playback rounds, Lebanon will play another district game before States – Thursday against Gettysburg for fifth place.
Still never got an official reason why, but there’s also a seventh-place game in Triple-A, and to me, that’s just completely unnecessary. How in the world can you lose two (2) games in Districts and still have a shot to make States? Come on.
PREDICTION UPDATE
Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for - an update on my predictions. Not sure at the moment where I stand (all of this stuff is starting to run together, quite frankly), so I’ll break it down bracket-by-bracket.
QUAD-A: Everyone’s Quad-A bracket was torched when No. 1 Red Lion lost in the first round – including mine.
No. 17 Central Dauphin East (aka Cinderella) did it again, beating No. 5 Wilson in the semifinals. The Panthers will meet Harrisburg, which edged rival Central Dauphin 52-49 in the other semi, Friday at 8:30 p.m. in the Giant Center for all the Quad-A marbles.
I didn’t predict any of those games (I had Cedar Crest over Red Lion in the finale), so I sort of lost interest in this bracket – especially after Cedar Crest beat McCaskey for the fifth time this season in the playback round.
Still can’t believe they played five times this season. Nutty.
FYI: Hempfield-Cedar Crest III (hey, Roman numerals!) in the fifth-place game on Thursday at 8 at Warwick. The Black Knights and Falcons split their season series. This game is for a state seed.
FYI II: In case you haven’t heard, there are play-in games in the PIAA bracket this year. You can check out the brackets here.
TRIPLE-A: Hmmm. I still have two (2) teams dancing in my bracket: Lampeter-Strasburg, which is set to take on Eastern York Wednesday, and Lancaster Catholic, which is set to take on (wait for it) the Bubblers of Boiling Springs, also Wednesday.
<I’ll be at that double-header in the Giant Center, and be sure to check Thursday’s New Era for my stories.>
I had Catholic over Lebanon in my picks, so that won’t happen.
But did anyone else have L-S in the semifinals?
Thank you very much.
DOUBLE-A: This is the York Catholic-Trinity Invitational Bracket, and those two are set to meet in the final on Thursday at 6:15 in the Giant Center. I have York Catholic winning it all. <I also predicted the final four correctly here, woo-hoo.>
SINGLE-A: I got half of it right – I had Country Day going to the finals, and the Cougars punched their ticket Tuesday. But I had them falling to No. 1 seed Reading Central Catholic, which was upset by Lebanon Catholic in the semis. So it’s Cougars and Beavers (oh my).
Before I go any further, a tip of the cap to Penn Manor’s boys’ team, which knocked off Cumberland Valley in the Quad-A semifinals on Tuesday. Up next for the Comets: a date with mighty Harrisburg in the title game on Saturday afternoon in the Giant Center. Good luck to Penn Manor.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
- I recently posted the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 season in review. I hope you had a chance to check that out, and if you have any friends who play in Section 2, please forward the link to this page to them so they can check it out. Thanks. I will also have full season reviews for Section 1, Section 3 and Section 4 – just as soon as the teams from those sections are done playing this season. So stay tuned.
- Again, I have received all the votes from the L-L League coaches for our New Era/Coaches All-Star teams. I am working on that now, and I’ll let everyone know when that story, photos and graphics will appear in the New Era. I also have the Coach of the Year winner (sorry, not saying anything), and I’ll let you know when that story will appear in the New Era.
That’s all I have for now – still not feeling so hot.
Check back Thursday for more rumblings.
JEFFREY REINHART
