If there’s one thing that Bethlehem Catholic took from their 55-46 victory over Central Catholic Friday night in the District 11 3A quarterfinals, it’s that defense will win you games in the postseason.

The Golden Hawks came up with one of their biggest wins on the season by trumping Central at William Allen, upending the fourth-seeded Vikings (13-11) in a Holy War on the court.

The fifth-seeded Hawks (15-9) used a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter to turn a 33-30 deficit into a 43-33 lead that they would never relinquish. Micaiah Fraction led all scorers with 17 points, while DeAndre Tillett added 12 points. Kweku Dawson-Amoah chipped in eight to pace a solid team effort by Becahi in their playoff opener.

Now the difficult task comes into play when the Hawks traveled to Blue Mountain Tuesday night to take on defending district champion and top-seeded Pottsville (26-0). The Crimson Tide stifled Lehighton 52-31 last Friday night to move into last night’s semifinals, which was past Press deadlines, with the Golden Hawks.

Becahi head coach Ray Barbosa thinks that playing a tough quarterfinal against a team like Central Catholic would only help his group prepare for Tuesday’s contest.

“Winning a game like this against Central gives us a lot of confidence,” said Barbosa. “As a team, we’ve already beaten a team that was undefeated earlier in the season in Pocono Mountain West. I just want our guys to believe we can do it against Pottsville.”

The Tide used a 15-0 run in the second half to open things up over Lehighton last week and play as many as 12 guys on a given night.

Barbosa labeled the Tide as simply as he could when talked about them being a complete team.

“They’re very disciplined and play great man-to-man defense,” he said. “They are very tough defensively and they got 12 guys that they trust to produce. They are the definition of a team.”

Barbosa felt his group would have an advantage inside with Dawson-Amoah, as well as Julian Spigner and Andrew Posch, who had a stellar game against Central Catholic, collecting eight points and being a dominating force on the boards.

“I think we can control the glass and our guards are quick enough to get to the rim,” Barbosa said. “Those are keys to the game but I think the biggest thing for us to battle through runs. It’s something we’ve preached all season long and it’s something we’ll need to do the rest of the postseason.”

Whether the Hawks win or lose, they’ll still be playing Friday night in either the district championship or the third-place consolation game. Both games will be at sites to be determined, but a win on Tuesday would guarantee that Becahi would advance to the PIAA tournament, since District 11 sends three teams from 3A.

Liberty (13-12) saw their season end on Saturday night in a 59-39 defeat to top-seeded Parkland in the 4A quarterfinals.

The Hurricanes fell behind by 17 in the second quarter and never were able to recover.

After knocking off Nazareth 65-51 in the opening round of districts, the ’Canes ran into a buzz-saw Saturday against the Trojans.

Parkland’s Kenny Yeboah scored a career-high 21 points to pace an easy night for the Trojans.

Liberty graduates seven seniors including Victor Santiago, who led the Hurricanes with seven points during Saturday’s defeat, along with Andrew Hudak, Logan Priestas, Chance Neilley, Najee Plunkett, Caleb Martinez and Doug Erney.

Freedom (11-12) lost their opening round contest last Wednesday 49-45 to Stroudsburg.