By Tom Robinson

For Dallas Post

High school basketball teams from all around District 2 will begin the process of trying to qualify for the first set of championships to be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza when the district opens boys and girls tournament schedules Tuesday.

District 2 has set those championship game schedules for Feb. 26 and 27 with Feb. 28 as a potential make-up date for weather. Class AA girls and Class AAAA girls get things started Feb. 26 before the Class AAA boys game at 8:30. The Class AAA girls is in the middle of the Feb. 27 schedule, at 4 p.m., after Class A girls and boys and before Class AA and AAAA boys.

All Back Mountain teams compete in Class AAA.

Headed into the final league game for all schools, which would set the seeding and brackets for the tournaments, only the Dallas girls appeared to be potential contenders.

The other teams – the Dallas boys and the Lake-Lehman and Tunkhannock boys and girls – are all long shots, starting in the bottom half of the field and therefore having to play road games against higher-ranked teams in the opening round.

Going into the last game, Dallas was sixth out of 16 Class AAA girls teams, but the Mountaineers could be an even stronger threat than their seed would indicate. They have both a winning record and the advantage of having played in Division 1 of the Wyoming Valley Conference where six of their 16 games were against Class AAAA opponents.

Depending on the results of those final games, a Back Mountain meeting of Lake-Lehman at Dallas in the first round was a possibility. The Tunkhannock girls also had the chance to be paired with a neighbor, Lackawanna League Division 1 champion Abington Heights.

In the boys brackets, Lake-Lehman and Dallas had the same group of potential opponents. They were likely in some combination to be headed to West Scranton, North Pocono or Berwick. Barring late upsets, Tunkhannock was facing the prospect of opening against the WVC Division 2 champion, either GAR or Nanticoke.

Seeding was to be determined during the weekend with plans for the tournaments scheduled to be formalized during a Monday district meeting.

The Class AAA boys tournament is scheduled to open Tuesday and move to the quarterfinals Thursday. The Class AAA girls have their first two rounds Wednesday and Friday.

Semifinals in both tournaments are set for Feb. 22.

Following the opening round, all remaining games are played on neutral courts.

Ticket prices are set at $6 for adults and $4 for students for all games prior to the finals.

Tickets for each day of the finals at Mohegan Sun Arena will be $7 for adults and $4 for students. Tickets to the finals will allow fans to watch as many games as they choose on that day. However, if they leave the building, they must purchase a new ticket to re-enter.

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