Deshawn Oyeniyi nailed a three-pointer and KJ Williams converted a steal to a dunk after the ensuing inbound pass late in overtime, and No. 2 seed Liberty defeated No. 7 seed Emmaus 52-49 Saturday night at Allen High School in the District 11 4A quarterfinals.

The Lehigh Valley Conference champion Hurricanes have been one of the hottest teams in the league as of late, winning 10 of 12 coming into this one. But the Green Hornets did not back down, especially after a six-point loss at the Hornets Nest on January 22.

"I couldn't be prouder of the boys," said head coach Steve Yoder. "We were in a good position and they made a couple of plays at the end that you have to give them credit for. It's high school basketball and you're never going to play the perfect game. There are a lot of possessions we'd like to do over."

Emmaus (12-12) had some chances to put the game away late in regulation and in overtime. With under a minute to go in overtime, the Green Hornets led 49-47, and only needed to hold onto the ball and convert from the free-throw line. But Dan Brndjar found himself open in space and missed a 12-foot jumper.

The Hurricanes (18-7) went into their offensive set, and with about 15 seconds remaining, Oyeniyi found himself open at the top of the arc and the big man drilled a three that stunned the Green Hornets. Williams then swiped the dribble of Nate Feiertag as the junior tried to get the ball to midcourt to call timeout and set up a play. But instead of being down by just one, Yoder was forced to call timeout under his own basket down by three.

"Hindsight's always 20-20, and some people probably think I should have called a timeout after Oyeniyi hit the three-pointer," said Yoder. "I wanted to get the ball up to halfcourt and call the timeout there, but we never got it to halfcourt."

It looked as though Emmaus was going to run away with this one early. The Green Hornets raced out to a 30-18 advantage with under two minutes to go until halftime. Derek Tannous scored 10 of his team-high 18 and Feiertag had 10 of his 15 points in the first half. Yoder credits his team's ability to take advantage of the long layoff (eight days) since Liberty last played a game.

"I told the kids that we needed to jump on them early with them having an eight-day layoff," said Yoder. "We played [Pleasant Valley on Wednesday] on a 10-day layoff and they jumped on us. We knew they were going to make a run in the third quarter. But to only be down by two points heading into the fourth was an alright position to be in."

The Hurricanes did make their run after halftime. They held Emmaus to five points in the third quarter and outscored the Hornets 14-5 over that eight-minute stretch.

Gabe Shankweiler forced tied the game at 45 with 10 seconds left in regulation on a rebound and putback off a missed free throw from Feiertag. Liberty's Chevon Williams then missed a floater as time expired.

The Green Hornets held two different leads of two points on a pair Feiertag free throws and a layup from Joey Nicolini. But Oyeniyi's three was the dagger.

Emmaus still proved a lot of doubters wrong with the season they had, after losing a very strong senior class a year ago. These four seniors (Tannous, Brndjar, Shankweiler, and Kane McGovern) have taken a leadership role and kept the Green Hornets near the top of the league and district.

"I couldn't be more proud of my boys," Yoder said. "On paper we had no business playing with [Liberty], but we took them to the wire both games. That shows me our coaching staff did a great job preparing the kids and I can't even begin to tell you the effort we got from this senior class all year. It was unbelievable that we went 9-5 in our conference, qualified for districts so early, and were in an LVC hunt to the final game. These kids overachieved all year."