It may not be a dream start to the season for Liberty's basketball team, but it's pretty close.

The Hurricanes (9-2, 8-0) entered this week a game behind Parkland (11-1, 9-0) in the overall East Penn Conference, but have qualified for the District 11 postseason already due to their eight league wins at this point.

Liberty's 53-43 win over East Stroudsburg South last week clinched their postseason berth during the first week of January, which is quite different from last year's ending, where Liberty didn't qualify for the postseason until they defeated Phoenixville in the final game of the season a year ago.

"I am a little surprised that we have started the year undefeated in the league," said head coach Chad Landis. "Everyone knew Parkland was a huge favorite in the league this year, but we also knew that after them everyone was going to be similar. "I think that has continued to be the case. The fact that we got off to such a good start puts us in a good position for the second half of the season."

That second half got going against Whitehall (8-5, 4-4) last night (past Press deadlines) and continues at Bethlehem Catholic (3-9, 2-5) Friday night. The Hurricanes finish their third road game of the week at Williamsport on Saturday.

The 'Canes hold a two-game leadad over Allen (9-3, 6-2) in the EPC's Steel Division and are in the drivers seat the rest of the way, as next Friday's tilt against Allen is their lone conference game the rest of the way against an opponent with a winning record.

With the new conference alignment this season, Parkland is one of the team's that Liberty doesn't play during the regular season, but may see in the EPC playoffs.

Nonetheless, Landis hopes this unit can continue their form the rest of the way.

"This team is different from the past couple years in that our team chemistry is much better," he said. "We are also very balanced and have had six or seven different leading scorers. We're playing very unselfish right now and that has made us tough to guard early in the season."

After a 3-0 start to the season, Freedom has lost nine of their last eleven, including four straight heading into this week.

The Pates had a tough stretch last week, which was started off by a 68-6nonleagueue defeat at Southern Lehigh.

With losses to Northampton, Parkland and Pocono Mountain West last week as well, the Pates sit at 5-9 overall, but 4-5 in league play to keep them in contention for districts.

However, with games against Central Catholic (9-4), Allen (9-3) and Dieruff (2-9) this week, the Pates won't have an easy time getting out of their slump.

Becahi (3-9, 2-5) saw senior Freddie Simmons eclipse the 1,000 point mark of his career in last week's 80-63 defeat to Nazareth, where Simmons scored 29 points, knocking down six three-pointers in the process, but the Hawks lost two crucial games in EPC play to put their season on the brink as they head into this week's encounters with Emmaus (6-7) and Liberty.