Can the North Tier League run the table in the District 9 girls basketball playoffs?
With traditionally powerful programs from the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference (KSAC) and Allegheny Mountain League (AML) having success in years prior, the slimmer classifications have opened the door for Northern Potter (Class A) and Coudersport (Class AA) to make runs to their respective district finals and beyond.
CLASS A Girls
The Lady Panthers (18-3) finish their season tonight and still have an outside shot at the top seed. However, North Clarion, 18-2 through Sunday, finishes its season with games against Tidioute Charter and Forest Area.
Northern Potter has losses against Coudersport twice and at Otto-Eldred. However, the senior class is in the midst of a remarkable turnaround for the Lady Panther program. Four years ago, the team went 2-20 and followed that up with an 8-15 campaign.
Last year, Northern Potter went 17-5, earned the third seed in Class A, but were upset in the quarterfinals by Elk Catholic’s Cinderella run to the final as an 11th seed. Two playoff wins would mean a school-record 20 victories for Northern Potter, which has made the district title just once, losing in 1988.
Two other NTL teams provide depth and interesting matchups at the bottom of projected seven- or eight-team bracket. Smethport, which enters the week 10-10 with two games remaining, might not enter the playoffs with a sub-.500 record.
Regardless, Otto-Eldred can likely do no worse than the sixth seed and, depending on tiebreakers, could move up to a top-four spot and have a first-round home game with a sweep of games this week.
Elk Catholic won’t be the underdog this year. Instead the AML North champions should figure to be a third- or fourth-seed, likely needing a win at home vs. Bradford High tonight to attain the former.
DuBois Central Catholic, Allegheny-Clarion Valley and Johnsonburg should fill out the rest of the bracket.
The top four teams make the state playoffs.
CLASS AA girls
Coudersport entered the week 20-1 and have a chance at back-to-back 21-1 seasons. But, like last year, their record will be just a footnote in program history if the Lady Falcons don’t take home the District 9 title.
As last year’s top seed, Coudersport topped Clarion in the quarterfinals — the team’s first district playoff win since 2012 — but was then beaten by fourth-seeded and eventual champion Keystone in the semifinals.
What’s changed this year?
For starters, the Lady Falcons might just be getting into their groove after much of the early season was spent by players getting into basketball shape after the Coudersport volleyball team made a run to the state semifinals in late November.
Haley Keck has raised her scoring average by five points from last season and is one of the district’s top scorers. Last week, she went for a career-high 30 against Smethport in a nine-point victory.
The Lady Falcons again have a deep rotation, but now one with a year more experience.
A pair of teams finished with their regular seasons are waiting for their chance at the Lady Falcons. Kane, at 18-4, and Cranberry, at 17-5, are other contenders in what projects to be a four-team bracket.
The Lady Wolves are on a four-game winning streak and will compete in the AML playoffs at the end of the week. Kane’s four losses have come to Elk Catholic (twice), North Clarion and St. Marys in the season’s second game.
Cranberry, meanwhile, is a in a familiar position having enjoyed success at the Class AA level in years prior.
Port Allegany, which enters the week 11-9, will be the fourth seed. The Lady Gators have a 1,000-point scorer in Autumn Buchsenschutz, but lost to their likely first-round opponent Coudersport by 32 and 15 points earlier this year.
Three teams make the state playoffs out of this group.
The others
In Class AAA, it should be a rematch of last year’s AA title game between Karns City and Moniteau. In that game, Karns City beat the Lady Warriors.
Moniteau entered the week at 18-3, with away losses at a pair of District 10 schools Warren and Slippery Rock, while also dropping a game Feb. 7 at Karns City.
Karns City is 16-5 entering the week.
The Class AAAA girls also figures to be just a two-team bracket between Punxsutawney and Clearfield. Bradford High, at just 2-18, is not eligible for the playoffs.
In AAAAA, DuBois projects to go to a subregional tournament with districts 6 and 8.
