Freedom's District 11 hopes stayed alive following their 65-50 victory over Bethlehem Catholic last Friday night.

The Pates had little trouble pulling away from the Golden Hawks in the second half, as Demond Farley paced the Patriots with 18 points, while Jeff Toronto chipped in 14 points to keep Freedom (7-13, 6-8) on track heading into their final two regular season contests this week.

Freedom opened up a 32-26 halftime lead into a 14-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, as a Toronto three-pointer just before the third quarter expired to open up their biggest lead of the game.

Despite being paced by Andrew Posch's 18 points, the Hawks (3-16, 2-12) had no answer to keep up with the Patriots, as they lost their ninth straight game of the season.

After dropping eight straight games midway through the year, Freedom has now won two in a row to put themselves back in the playoff hunt, as they sit two games below .500 in their league mark with games against Allen (14-6) and Liberty (13-6) this week.

Last night's contest against the Canaries was past Press deadlines, but Freedom head coach Joe Stellato and his players were festive about their chances in the Becahi locker room following last week's win.

Freedom's staff had preached to their players how Friday's contest with Becahi was a quarterfinal and their road to the playoffs continued with a semifinal game against Allen.

"We've been telling our guys that these have been playoff games," said Stellato. "We put ourselves in a hole with losses earlier in the season, including one to Becahi, and now we have to go out and win our last two games to get in. We played with a chip on our shoulder against them [Becahi] because we lost to them in the last second before. There's some games we would like to have back that we lost, but all we can do is focus on getting the wins we need now."

Freedom lost to Allen 70-53 on Jan. 16 and needed to close that gap further last night on the road in order to keep their hopes alive, before they head into a rivalry clash with Liberty this Friday at home.

Becahi's season will end this week, as the Hawks took on Liberty last night, Pottsville on Thursday and close out their campaign against Easton Friday night.

The Hurricanes hold a two-game lead over Allen in the Steel Division and would have clinched the division title with a win over the Hawks yesterday.

Having something to play for is all Stellato can ask for after his team hit hard times early in the year, which is why he hopes this last week of the season can end favorably for his group.

"We played like a good basketball team tonight and that's what we need to do if we want to make districts," said Stellato. "We got to play consistent for four quarters. If we play consistent basketball for four quarters, we're going to have a shot to make this run. There's games that we played well enough to beat anybody, but it's up to our guys to show up all four quarters."