Pleasant Valley proved to hang tough with Liberty Friday night at Bethlehem's Memorial Gymnasium, but the Bears just ran out of gas in the final five minutes, falling to the Hurricanes 71-55 in East Penn Conference action.

The Bears fought back and forth through the first three and a half quarters to stay within striking distance of Liberty and saw that hard work pay off with 5:12 left in the fourth, when Kevin Wisser (11-points) hit one of his three treys on the night to even the game at 50, but from there it was all Liberty.

The Hurricanes ran off 11-straight points over the next three minutes and the deficit was too much to overcome.

"I just think we ran out of gas in the fourth," said Pleasant Valley head coach Matt Gould. "We have a couple guys injured and we have some guys sitting on the bench because of discipline issues too. We fought hard to keep it at 50, but Liberty had 11 guys running in and out and we had seven. We played hard and finally put together a good game, but it just wasn't enough against them."

Senior guard Eric Marbury played his best game of the season, scoring 22 points for the Bears and single-handily kept his team within striking distance of Liberty throughout the first half, as the Bears only trailed 28-26 at the intermission.

The third quarter saw three's keep the Bears in the game, as they nailed three of their six for the game in the period, to only trail 46-45 heading into the fourth before eventually finding themselves even with the Hurricanes, who improved their league and overall mark to 5-0 on the season.

"I think Marbury is a very good player and they got us into some foul trouble and we took the lead in the third quarter, but man, they came storming right back," said Liberty head coach Chad Landis. "They were really resilient. It wasn't until we really needed to be good in the fourth quarter where we were able to put it away."

Part of what sparked Liberty's fourth quarter run was their ability to grab important rebounds and stop shots. Landis experimented with having two bigs on the floor late in the game, by having 6-foot-8 center Andrew Hudak (11 points) and 6-foot-6 forward Cameron Hoffman (four points) on the floor at the same time. The change eliminated PV's ability to attack the rim and the Bears couldn't hit from the outside.

It also didn't help that Liberty shot a season-best 28-of-31 from the free throw line.

"We have not shot free throws like that all year," Landis said. "To make that many was huge for us. This is a good win for us going into Monday [Pocono Mountain West]."

Liberty had a chance to keep its season undefeated heading into Monday's contest, but the results of that game were past Press deadlines. The Hurricanes travel to Perkiomen Valley during the holidays, where they'll play Methacton and North Penn.

The Hurricanes sit atop the East Penn Conference's Steel Division, as Freedom (3-3) and Bethlehem Catholic (2-5) are looking up in the standings.

The Patriots have lost three straight since their 3-0 start to the season, falling to Quakertown 66-56 over the weekend.

The Pates try to get back on track Tuesday night when they take on East Stroudsburg North (3-4). They travel to State College over the holidays to take part in their seasonal tournament.

After beating Freedom and East Stroudsburg South to pick up two straight wins, Becahi lost to St. Anthony's (NY) 73-65 on Saturday.

The Hawks travel to Pleasant Valley on Tuesday night before heading to York, PA next Monday and Tuesday to play in the Robert H. Griffith Memorial Tournament, where they open against Danville.

The Hawks look to win this tournament for the third straight year.