Liberty's basketball team has proven again that the Hurricanes are always a force to be reckoned with when it comes to playoff time.

The Hurricanes, who qualified for the postseason in their final game of the season, have now put themselves in position to possibly continue to the state tournament after upsetting top-seeded Pocono Mountain West 79-73 Saturday night.

DeShawn Oyeniyi led the 'Canes with 29 points, but was helped along the way with another stellar performance by Ludwin Gonzalez, who added 18 points to push the Hurricanes into tonight's semifinal contest against Emmaus.

After blowing out Whitehall 58-38 in the first round of districts, the 'Canes (13-11) reversed a 26-point regular season loss to PMW over the weekend to score the biggest upset of the district tournament so far.

"I am a little surprised about what we've been able to do," said head coach Chad Landis. "I knew we were capable of doing this, but prior to districts, we haven't played well in a while. "You usually like to being playing your best around Christmas time and for us, it took us until the end of the season to finally get things clicking."

Gonzalez has been a major factor in Liberty's success, as he scored 17 points against Whitehall and his 18-point effort against West helped tremendously.

With the absence of KJ Williams during the postseason, Gonzalez has thrived, providing balance on the perimeter, while Oyeniyi wrecks havoc in the interior.

"Ludwin has been really good," said Landis. "He's been huge for us, as well as DeShawn and Jaevan [Dobbins]. Those three have really been the offensive catalysts for us."

That must now continue against the fourth-seeded Hornets tonight at 6pm when both teams tip-off the action at Allen.

The 'Canes and Hornets split their season encounters, with Emmaus (17-6) registering an 80-70 win on Jan. 27 at Memorial Gymnasium.

Should the ninth-seeded Hurricanes keep the upset streak going, they'll solidify another trip to the state tournament, but Landis knows there's plenty of work to do against Emmaus before they can think of that.

"They do a very good job of running their offense to get the shots they want," he said of the Hornets. "They play fundamentally sound defense and we're going to have to make them uncomfortable if we want to win."