Four Times News area girls basketball teams will be in District 11 quarterfinal round action on Saturday. Three of the teams - Lehighton, Jim Thorpe and Northwestern - will be involved in the Class AAA playoffs while Weatherly is part of the Class A field.

CLASS AQUARTERFINALSNo. 5 Weatherly vs. No. 4 Shenandoah ValleyTIPOFF:Saturday, Feb. 20 at Martz Hall, 6 p.m.COACHES:Weatherly - Kevin Kringe (2nd season); SV - Chris Conroy (9th season)RECORDS:Weatherly (11-11); Shenandoah Valley (12-10)LEADING SCORERS:Weatherly - Emily Zoscin (13.45 ppg), Shelby Berger (11.64 ppg), Megan Peifer (9.64 ppg), Lexi Hartz (3.24 ppg); Shenandoah Valley - Marcella Creasy (10.5 ppg), Allison Wargo (6.86 ppg), Carly Teaschenko (6.68 ppg), Molly Michalik (5.04 ppg)GAME NOTES:The two teams met 15 days ago in an exciting Schuylkill League contest that saw Shenandoah Valley rally to top the Lady Wreckers, 42-38 … The four-point defeat was the closest Weatherly has come to defeating the Devils since 2006. During the sequence, Shenandoah Valley is a perfect 20-0 against the Lady Wreckers. That streak also includes a 17-point victory earlier this season … This match up is truly a battle of different personnel. The Blue Devils (36.0 ppg. average) might not score a ton, but have held opponents to just 32 points-per-game this year. As for Weatherly, the Lady Wreckers like to run and gun, and are averaging a shade over 45 points-per-game offensively - but also give up about a point more per-game defensively … Weatherly's Berger has drained 33 three-pointers, which is more than the rest of her team combined … Zoscin does a bulk of her damage from the foul line, as she has gotten there 128 times this season … The Blue Devils dropped five of their last six regular season games. Weatherly won two of its final three, including their regular season finale against Meadowbrook Christian … This is Weatherly's first appearance in the District 11 tournament since 2005 ... Alaina Demalis is Shenandoah's defensive-stopper, so it will be interesting to see where she matches up … Weatherly's depth could be tested, as none of its regular reserves have scored more than 36 points on the year.QUOTABLE:"We always wanted to break though and finally get into the playoffs again. It was a playoff feeling in our last game. If we didn't leave with a win, it was all over. These girls have been in the gym all summer and the progress they've made since May is fantastic. With Shenandoah being in our league, we are obviously familiar with them. Coach Conroy does a great job out there. We're going to have to score the ball so that we can set up our press. We want to dictate our game style, and try and make it a track meet. We'll have the guns blazing, and we'll try to run as much as we can. The girls had a great week and really got the 'big time' feel this week. It took a while for them to believe in themselves. I was selling the dream for a while. As we got closer, they started to believe." - Weatherly head coach Kevin Kringe.CLASS AAAQUARTERFINALSNo. 8 Lehighton vs. No. 1 Southern LehighTIPOFF:Saturday, Feb. 20 at Whitehall, 4 p.m.COACHES:Leh - Eric Gidney (3rd season); SL - Matt Cooper (2nd season)RECORDS:Lehighton (11-11); Southern Lehigh (23-1)LEADING SCORERS:Leh - Skylynn Faust (12.36 ppg), Aubrey Blasiak (10.50 ppg), Allie Rossino (5.23 ppg), Jada Whiteman (3.50 ppg); SL - Olivia Snyder (12.7 ppg), Sydney Cyr (10.4 ppg), Amanda Mobley (10.2 ppg), Ellie Cassel (8.6 ppg)GAME NOTES:This is only Lehighton's third district appearance since the 1999-2000 season and its first since 2009 … Southern Lehigh hasn't battled any Schuylkill League teams this year … The Lady Spartans' lone defeat of the season was a non-league affair in the initial game of the year against Dunmore. Since then, the Spartans have been on fire, winning 23 straight, including the Colonial League championship ... The Lady Spartans score at will, having scored over 60 points on six different occasions this year … Southern Lehigh's Mobley and Lehighton's Blasiak lead their respective teams with 27 three-pointers made this year … The Lady Spartans average 56 points per game while Lehighton averages 41 … Lehighton's Faust has reached double-figures in 14 of 22 games this season … The Indians are 4-1 when they get to the foul line 15 or more times in game this season … Lehighton has also held its opponent to 35 or fewer points 10 times … Lehighton is a perfect 5-0 against Colonial League competition this year.QUOTABLE:"Once we got into the thick of a very challenging Schuylkill League season, the wins were a little bit harder to come by, but that's to be expected. At one point, the top three teams in our division were all under consideration for state rankings. We took our lumps against some of them, but also took Blue Mountain to the last 30 seconds at our place. So we are familiar with playing strong teams, and Southern Lehigh definitely is a strong team. They're a well-balanced, good transition team. They get second and third opportunities on the offensive end. We are going to do our best to exploit their weaknesses and create opportunities. But, we have to be aware of and hide our weaknesses. We need to come out and play our brand of basketball, which is tough and gritty. We need to pull up for those long three-pointers and make them." - Lehighton head coach Eric Gidney.CLASS AAA GIRLSQUARTERFINALSNo. 7 Jim Thorpe vs. No. 2 Blue MountainTIPOFF:Saturday, Feb. 20, at Martz Hall, 7:30 p.m.COACHES:Jim Thorpe - Rob Kovac (Ninth season); Blue Mountain - Ruth Weidman (10th season)RECORDS:Jim Thorpe (12-10 overall; 5-9 Schuylkill League Division I); Blue Mountain (20-2 overall; 15-1 Schuylkill League Division I)LEADING SCORERS:Jim Thorpe - Kayley Kovac (24.62 ppg), Payton Kovac (6.23 ppg), Kaitlyn Ohl (5.00 ppg), Devon Lignore (4.00 ppg); Blue Mountain - Abby Fanelli (15.5 ppg, 44 3's), Julia Kutz (12.5 ppg, 9.6 rebounds/game), Erin Ebling (4.6 ppg), Jillian Moyer (4.2 ppg)GAME NOTES:After missing out on districts by a single game last season, Jim Thorpe finds itself back in the postseason for the first time since 2012 ... Oddly enough, the last time the Olympians were in the "Dance" they also faced Blue Mountain in the opening round. The Olympians won that game, 59-51 ... Jim Thorpe and Blue Mountain are very familiar with each other. The Schuylkill League Division I rivals played twice this season with the Eagles posting double-digit wins both times ... Coach Kovac expects Blue Mountain to try and double up leading scorer Kayley Kovac on Saturday, meaning someone else will probably need to step up ... The Olympians will need to slow down Eagles standout Abby Fanelli, who Kovac called a "premier player and an All-State caliber guard."... The Olympians will also need to keep Blue Mountain's Julia Kutz off the boards. Kutz's rebounding hurt Thorpe in the two regular season meetings .QUOTABLE:"We're not intimidated. We're not afraid. We understand we're the underdog and that's fine by us. But, we're also not going to go up there on Saturday night to just show up, we're going there to compete. And, at the end of the day, regardless of what happens, we know we're going to be better as a result of it and that's the exciting thing." - Jim Thorpe coach Rob Kovac.CLASS AAA GIRLSQUARTERFINALSNo. 5 Northwestern vs.No. 4 Central CatholicTIPOFF:Saturday, Feb. 20, at Whitehall HS, 1 p.m.COACHES:Northwestern - Chris Deutsch (13th season); Central Catholic - Mike Kopp (36th season, 40th overall)RECORDS:Northwestern (15-7 overall; 13-4 Colonial League); Central Catholic (12-10 overall; 9-7 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference)LEADING SCORERS:Northwestern - Erika Thomas (16.9 ppg, 32 3's), Leighanna Lister (9.9 ppg), Gabby Sevrain (5.3 ppg), Mikaela Koenig (4.5 ppg); Central Catholic - Neila Luma (12.0 ppg), Margaux Epirat (7.5 ppg), Kali Buckenmyer (6.5 ppg), Jess Davis (6.5 ppg, 30 3's)GAME NOTES:This will mark the fifth straight season that Chris Deutsch has guided Northwestern into the district playoffs and the 13th time that the Tigers have qualified for districts since 2000 ... Northwestern and Central Catholic did not play during the regular season, but had three common opponents in Pleasant Valley, Whitehall and Southern Lehigh. The Tigers were 1-4 against those teams, beating Pleasant Valley, but losing to Whitehall once and Southern Lehigh three times. Central Catholic was 3-1 against those teams, beating Whitehall twice and Pleasant Valley once, and losing to Southern Lehigh ... Deutsch said a key for his team will be handling the Vikings' Neila Luma, who has had a strong season. Deutsch said, "Luma has a lot of size. She's really good around the basket. So, we're going to have our work cut out for us." ... Central is far from a one-person team, however, as Duetsch said both Margaux Epirat, who is their second leading scorer, and Jess Davis, who is their leading three point shooter, are also very dangerous ...QUOTEABLE:"I feel like we're going to come out and play well on Saturday. I can't guarantee any type of win, but I think we will play better than we did last week against Southern Lehigh in the league playoffs. I think we will shoot the ball better than we did last week. I think at this time of year whoever you play is good. So, it's not like you're going to have an easy game in the playoffs. Everybody's good and it's a great challenge. At this time of the year, the goal is simple - survive and advance to the next round. We're going to do everything possible to do that,." - Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch.