The District 11 basketball playoffs kick off this week and the opening round 4A matchups for Liberty and Freedom pits them in rematches against East Penn Conference foes when Wednesday’s opening round gets underway.

Liberty (9th seed) will travel to Nazareth (8th seed) for a 7 p.m. affair on Wednesday, while Freedom (11th seed) has to make a trek up north to Stroudsburg (6th seed).

Both teams have familiarity with each other this season, as the Hurricanes (12-10) won their first encounter over the Blue Eagles (13-9) on January 8 by a 63-49 margin.

Freedom topped Stroudsburg 53-34 in December 18 blow out victory.

That was then and this is now and both head coaches know that postseason basketball is a different animal.

“I think the biggest thing this week is who can knock the rust off after almost two weeks of not playing games,” said Liberty head coach Chad Landis. “The start of the game will be important for both teams, but playoff basketball is usually won by the team that takes care of the ball and is willing to defend.”

The start of the game was the difference between Freedom (11-11) and Stroudsburg (14-8) when the two teams met in December, as the Patriots used a 20-3 second quarter to build a 17-point lead going into the second half that Stroudsburg could never recover from.

This time around, head coach Joe Stellato knows he’ll have a tougher task traveling on the road against a team that surely remembers how the first encounter ended.

“We have to rebound the ball,” Stellato said. “We’ll force them to take jumpers, so we must rebound the ball. We need to penetrate there zone defense and not settle for jump shots.”

Should either team win on Wednesday, they’ll move to Saturday’s quarterfinal round where Liberty would take on top-seeded Parkland (19-3) at 7:30pm at Freedom.

Should the Patriots advance, they’ll travel up north again, this time for a 6 p.m. contest at Pleasant Valley to take on third-seeded Pocono Mountain West (19-3).

In 3A, the top bracket is loaded with the three best teams starting off with top-seeded Pottsville (22-0), but Bethlehem Catholic (14-8) and Central Catholic (13-9) unfortunately are set to square off in the quarterfinals Friday at 7:30pm in a four-five matchup at Allen.

This will be the first meeting between both teams this season and unfortunately, one of their season’s will end this weekend.

“We need to stop Zay Jennings and control the boards,” said Becahi head coach Ray Barbosa on the keys to beating Central. “We need to work the ball inside offensively as well, because I think we have an advantage there.”

Jennings is averaging 21 points a game this season for the Vikings and is the catalyst for their offense.

Kweku Dawson-Amoah, who averages 13.6 points a game, will be the focal point for the Hawks interior game.

The winner of Friday’s quarterfinal will most likely meet Pottsville in the semifinal round on February 23.

In 4A girls action, Liberty (fifth-seed) hosted Bangor (twelfth-seed) on Tuesday night, which was past Press deadlines. The Hurricanes (17-5) were favorites to move into Friday’s quarterfinals, where they would meet fourth-seeded Pottsville (19-3). That game is slated to be played at 7 p.m. in Blue Mountain.

Bethlehem Catholic (14-8) will need to wait until Saturday to open up district action when they take on East Stroudsburg North (11-11) in a three-six quarterfinal matchup.

A win would push the Hawks into next Wednesday’s (Feb. 24) semifinals against either Jim Thorpe (12-10) or Blue Mountain (20-2).