The depressed appearance of Liberty head coach Chad Landis following last week's stunning end to the season was all that needed to be seen to understand the disappointment of losing in the first-round of the District 11 4A playoffs.

The sixth-seeded Hurricanes fell victim to an opening round defeat to eleventh-seeded Nazareth 54-51 to end their season much sooner than anyone could have expected.

Falling behind early and fighting back took energy out the Hurricanes, but the demoralized look on Landis spoke volumes of how much this one hurt.

"This one is a tough pill to swallow," said Landis. "You never want to lose in districts, but you can't lose in districts on your home court."

Liberty was sluggish for nearly three quarters last week, as they fell behind 26-14 at the half and continued to trail 42-28 through three quarters.

Down 49-40, Liberty reeled off a 9-0 run to even the game following a Jeremy Johnson drive to the hoop with 2:24 remaining in the fourth.

Both teams would eventually find themselves in another deadlock at 51, but a bucket by Nazareth's Jahan Dotson gave the Blue Eagles a 53-51 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

Up 54-51 with 2.4 seconds left, the Hurricanes had one final chance to send the game into overtime, but Cameron Hoffman's three-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed in and out and sent Liberty (18-8) packing.

The Blue Eagles (13-11) then turned around and knocked off third-seeded Stroudsburg 68-65 on Saturday to send them to the semi-finals where they'll play seventh-seeded Whitehall.

Parkland (first-seed) and Allen (fourth-seed) play in the other semifinal tonight.

"I have no idea why we had such a slow start," said Landis in reference to their sluggish start against Nazareth. "I thought we were ready to go. It just felt like we couldn't find a combination in the first half that was playing hard enough to get us going back in the right direction.

"I don't know if playing in the EPC title and then turning around and playing in districts a couple days later made a difference. It's just tough."