Liberty may have been in the inaugural East Penn Conference championship game, they may have beaten Stroudsburg en route to the final and they had a supremely better record than Emmaus and Allen, but none of that mattered when it came down to power points in this year's District 11 4A basketball tournament.

The Hurricanes (18-7) saw the biggest drop in the district seedings over the weekend, falling all the way to a sixth seed to open the tournament tonight at home against 11th seeded Nazareth in the pigtail round.

For a team that won it's division, was tied for the second best record in the conference and played in the league championship, the Hurricanes witnessed the biggest drop of any team in this year's district tournament.

Head coach Chad Landis knows it's a byproduct of the system, but is happy his team was able to avoid Parkland in their half of the bracket.

"I think what it comes down to is that our nonleague games hurt us," said Landis of Liberty's 2-4 record against nonleague opponents. "That's how the system works and we'll have to learn to adjust to that.

"You aren't going to find any easy games at this point of the year, but it almost is a blessing to not have Parkland in your bracket. Still, Nazareth is going to be a battle and you have Stroudsburg waiting after that, which will be super tough to beat them again, especially on the road."

Liberty defeated Nazareth 73-58 in their only encounter this season and the Hurricanes topped Stroudsburg 57-49 last week in the EPC semifinals.

Despite the seeding snub, Landis is confident with his team heading into districts.

"I think we're definitely a battle tested group, especially after playing in the EPC tournament," he said. "This team has learned a lot throughout the year and we're not going to make excuses for where we're at. We're ready for the challenge."

Other 4A pigtail contests to be played in the 4A bracket Wednesday include: Southern Lehigh (8) vs. Pocono Mountain West (9); Emmaus (5) vs. Easton (12) and Whitehall (7) vs. Northampton (10).

Parkland awaits the winner of the Solehi contest on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Easton, as the Trojans are the top-seed after winning the EPC.

Fourth-seeded Allen gets the winner of Emmaus and Easton at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Northampton.

Second-seeded Bangor, who jumped most teams in the power ratings because of winning the Colonial League, gets either Whitehall or Northampton at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Pleasant Valley, followed by third-seeded Stroudsburg playing at 1 p.m. at PV Saturday afternoon against either Liberty or Nazareth.

Semifinals are scheduled for next Wednesday and finals will be the following Saturday (Feb. 28).