Inside game will be the key

The Lake-Lehman and Dallas High School boys basketball teams will look inside often this season while trying to accomplish their goals.

Lake-Lehman will try to continue an upswing in the program while Dallas hopes to avoid slipping from the championship level.

Pete Borum, a 6-foot-6 junior, returns at Lake-Lehman where he will combine with three-year starter Jared James to lead the Black Knights.

After losing the entire starting lineup from a championship squad, Dallas will build around 6-foot-6 sophomore forward/center Allen Fell while hoping for contributions from promising 6-foot-7 freshman Sukhmail Mathon.

We have two really high potential young players, said Dallas coach Doug Miller.

Both teams have moved up a division with realignment of the Wyoming Valley Conference.

The climb from Division 3 to Division 2 is long overdue at Lake-Lehman, which posted its first winning record in 20 years last season.

We're happy to be up there, Lake-Lehman coach Brian Cutter said of the move to a division with Holy Redeemer, GAR, Nanticoke and Wyoming Area. We're a Triple-A school when it comes to basketball, so that's where we belong.

We belong playing those schools. We've been down in Division 3 because our program's been down for so long.

The progress has been steady under Cutter.

When I took over three years ago, the cupboard was pretty bare, he said, but I knew with the kids coming up that we'd get better.

We won five, then nine, then 12 and we expect to win more.

James, a starter on the wing for each of the past two years, and Borum, who moved into the starting lineup part way through his freshman season and was an all-star and the team scoring leader as a sophomore, are important to those expectations.

We have some quick guards, but we're also pretty big underneath with Pete inside, Cutter said. We can push the ball, but we can also go down low and play a slow-down game and pound the ball inside.

James is likely to be the only senior starter.

We're going to start a pretty young lineup, Cutter said, but we'll have a lot of experience backing up the kids who are starting.

Seniors Bill Hillman, a guard, and forwards Tom Boyle, Josh Davenport and Cody Spriggs all have some experience.

Junior Adam Dizbon, the team's most effective 3-point shooter, takes over as starting point guard.

Cody Paraschak, a 6-foot-4 junior, put in the work in the offseason to make himself into a probable starter.

Juniors Vince Williamson and sophomores Mike Symeon and Brian Devine should also be in the mix at guard.