Zephs close to district berth idistrict

Published January 27. 2016 11:00PM

by Peter Car pcar@tnonline.com

The race to the postseason is on for Whitehall as we head into the final full week of East Penn Conference action on the hardwood.

The remnants of more than 30 inches of snow from Saturday postponed a heavy slate of contests over the weekend and Tuesday, but at least a clearer picture for the Zephyrs was painted after their last two league contests.

After dropping four straight games, Whitehall (11-7, 7-6) got out of their funk by registering an 83-65 win over Central Catholic last Friday night. The momentum didn’t last as Tuesday’s 71-68 loss to Nazareth kept the Zephyrs one win from a district berth with three games (Parkland, Emmaus and Northampton) to go in the regular season.

With all teams in the East Penn Conference having 12 of their 16 league games under their belts heading into Tuesday’s action, six teams had clinched EPC playoff berths heading into this week.

That leaves eight teams (Liberty, Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom, Easton, East Stroudsburg North, Whitehall, Nazareth and Northampton) still vying for the final two EPC playoff spots up for grabs. It’s fair to say that the race to qualify for the league playoffs will come down to the league’s final regular season date on February 3.

Here are the latest EPC standings as of Wednesday morning.

Teams with an asterisk have already clinched a league playoff berth.

EPC Overall

Parkland* 12-1 (14-3)

POC Mt. West* 10-2 (15-2)

Emmaus* 9-3 (14-4)

Allen* 9-3 (12-5)

Stroudsburg* 9-4 (11-7)

Central* 8-4 (12-5)

Nazareth 8-7 (11-7)

Liberty 7-5 (8-9)

Becahi 6-5 (10-7)

Freedom 6-6 (9-9)

Whitehall 6-7 (10-8)

N’ampton 5-7 (9-9)

Easton 5-7 (7-9)

Eastburg N 5-8 (8-10)

Eastburg S 3-10 (7-12)

POC Mt. E 2-10 (5-13)

Dieruff 2-10 (4-12)

Pleas Vy 1-12 (3-14)