DISTRICT 11 CLASS AAA BOYS

FIRST ROUNDNo 10 Tamaqua (13-9 overall)at No 7 Lehighton (13-10 overall)TIPOFF: Wednesday, February 19, at 7:00 p.m. at LehightonCOACHES: Tamaqua - Caszy Kosciolek, Lehighton - Rich OertnerLEADING SCORERS: Tamaqua - Brett Kosciolek (18.8), Bo Rottet (15.3); Lehighton - Jordan Knappenberger (13.04), Tyler Crum (13.00)GAME NOTES: Each of these teams had a great start to the season as both schools started out with a 6-2 record through their first eight games…Lehighton and Tamaqua can both get hot and shoot the lights out. The Indians have dropped 114 three-pointers opposed to Tamaqua's 103 of their own which rank third and fourth respectively in our coverage area. The Indians have scored 60 plus points in 11 games this year, while Tamaqua has done it nine times. The Indians and Raiders rank first and second in points per game in the area. Lehighton has one of the most balanced scoring attacks in the TN region as well. There were three separate occasions this season where each Indian starter tallied double-digit points in a game. Lehighton was victorious in two of those three games...These two schools met on February 1. Tamaqua was the winner at home by a score of 66-54...That match up was Lehighton's fourth game in six days. Raider sophomore guard Russell Blaker had a season high 16 points in the contest. Blaker has scored 53 points in his last 5 games; he totaled 52 points in his previous 17 appearances this season…Tamaqua and Lehighton have both had success running man-to-man defenses. Kosciolek and his Raiders rank first in defensive points per game in the area…Both coaches praise one-another's point guard in saying both Rossino and Rottet make their offenses go and possess high basketball IQ…Rossino is one of two Indians (James Farano) who have made the Mountain Valley Conference all-star honorable mention. Coach Kosciolek has now led the Raiders to two consecutive district appearances for the first time in a decade. Before Kosciolek took over, Tamaqua earned 22 wins in their previous sevens seasons. Kosciolek has now totaled 32 wins with Tamaqua in his first three seasons with the program…Lehighton and Tamaqua were last District XI champions in the 1980's. The Raiders were AA champs in the 1982-83 season, as Lehighton won a title in the 1986-87 season in the AAA bracket.QUOTABLE: "Last time we met we felt like we did a good job of taking away their shooters, however they had other players including Blaker who stepped up big for them. You're not going to win too many games shooting 4-24 from beyond the arch as we did against Tamaqua in that match up. We settled for jump shots, which we weren't making. We need to get to the rim, move the ball, and get some of their guys in foul trouble. They were extremely well prepared for us last time. We're going to have to continuously change up our defenses tonight in order to put us in a good position to win." - Lehighton head coach Rich Oertner"We're familiar with each other. We played in the offseason and met earlier in the month. Lehighton is very battle tested in a tough Mountain Valley Conference. Rossino really makes that offense go. He penetrates and is able to distribute well to their shooters on the outside. Their kids do a ton of things right that don't show up in the box score. You can size it up however you want but it comes down to who plays better defense, rebounds better, and simply takes care of the ball. In our previous match up, we were one step quicker to the ball and that made the difference." - Tamaqua head coach Caszy KosciolekDISTRICT 11 CLASS AAA BOYSFIRST ROUNDNo. 9 Northern Lehigh (13-9 overall, 10-6 Colonial League) at No. 8 Saucon Valley (13-9 overall, 11-5 Colonial League)TIPOFF: Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.COACHES: Saucon Valley - Matt Brown, Northern Lehigh - Jeff MillerLEADING SCORERS: Saucon Valley - Keith Mosher (Sr., 18.50 ppg), Mike Kane (So., 15.04 ppg), Connor Simpson (Jr., 9.30 ppg), Cameron Weeks (So., 6.40 ppg); Northern Lehigh - Matt Egan (Sr., 15.64 ppg), Tyler Dibilio (Sr., 14.09 ppg), Josh Landsberger (Sr., 10.85 ppg), Joe Egan (Jr., 6.47 ppg), Aaron Hofmann (Jr., 5.0 ppg).GAME NOTES ... Saucon Valley enters districts on a three-game win streak with victories over Southern Lehigh, Palisades and Wilson. Northern Lehigh won three of its final five games, beating Palmerton, Pen Argyl and Northwestern ... After Saucon lost five of its first six games this season, they have been a force, finishing 12-4 since that point ... The Panthers finished with a 11-5 league record, with only one loss against a non-divisional opponent (Northern Lehigh) ... The Bulldogs have been facing personnel issues. Senior center and leading rebounder, Josh Landsberger, was out for two games midway through the season, before returning, only to have junior guard Joe Egan suffer a concussion against Salisbury (Jan. 29), and sit out the remainder of the regular season ... Egan will be back for the Saucon game, looking to provide a spark off the bench ... On Jan. 8, in the teams only meeting this season, Northern Lehigh pulled out a thrilling 57-55 win on a three-pointer from Dibilio with nine seconds left. In the game, Dibilio drew the tough assignment of defending Panther leading scorer Keith Mosher, and limited him to 14 in the game, however, Mike Kane (19 points) and Connor Simpson (16 points) both had big games. Landsberger blew up for 21 points to lead all scorers in the contest and will need to do so again against the smaller Panther lineup. Matt Egan added 18 points in the earlier Bulldog win ... Both teams finished in third place in their respective divisions and both teams just barely missed out on qualifying for the Colonial League playoffs ... Saucon will be looking to stop the three-headed senior class monster of Matt Egan, Dibilio and Landsberger, as the three have combine for 76 per cent of their team's offense on the season ... The last time these two teams met in the District 11 tournament was in the AAA bracket in 2009-10 when the 10th seeded Panthers upset the second-seeded Bulldogs, 50-44 ... Saucon hasn't won a district title since 1992 while Northern Lehigh last captured District 11 gold in 2008 ... The Panthers return to districts this season for the first time since 2010-11 when they were seeded first and lost to Allentown Central Catholic, the eventual district champion ... Northern Lehigh qualified for districts last year and dropped a 47-44 decision to Tamaqua in the first round ... The winner of this contest will move on to face undefeated Allentown Central Catholic, the top-ranked team in the D-11 AAA bracket and third-ranked team in the state.QUOTABLE: "I'm confident going into the game on Tuesday night and I think we match up well with them. (Keith) Mosher is one of the top scorers in the league and Tyler (Dibilio) did a really nice job on him defensively the first time we played against them, so that should be a great match-up again. We want to try and limit his open looks at the basket this time around and force him to have to work hard for every point he gets. (Mike) Kane hurt us in that game and he definitely doesn't play like a sophomore, so hopefully we can make him work for whatever he gets, as well. We'll play man defense, because that's what we've played all year, along with a little zone at times, and we also hope to pressure them a little more than what we did the first time. It'll be huge to get the nerves out of the way immediately, because we don't want to fall behind and have their home crowd get into it, so we'll need to get out to a good start. Having not reached one of our goals in making the league playoffs, I think the guys feel that had a shot to be in it and hopefully they come into the game with a bit of a chip on their shoulders and play with purpose." - Northern Lehigh head coach, Jeff Miller.