Liberty got off to a good start in the opening weekend of the boys’ basketball season, but now the Hurricanes look to see what they really are working with when they open EPC play this week.

Liberty (1-0) had little trouble dispatching Southern Lehigh last Saturday 63-36, as Dwayne Chess led the ‘Canes with a 17-point, 13 rebound effort, along with highly touted freshman Jake Pukszyn leading all scorers with an 18-point effort.

It was the type of start to the season head coach Nigel Long had hoped for, as his team comes into the winter with hype following last year’s 11-12 campaign.

“I thought we had great energy on Saturday,” said Long. “Our guys really gave a solid effort. Still a ton of work to do on both sides of the ball, but I was encouraged by our defense during parts of the game. I was also encouraged by how together we were throughout the game.”

Liberty took on Nazareth (2-0) on Tuesday night and close out the week against Northampton (1-0) on Friday to round out a challenging week of conference action.

Both programs are off to strong starts and will provide a gauge where the Hurricanes stand early in the season.

“Two really good programs who will challenge our toughness early on,” Long said. “Both programs do a great job of battling hard for their schools. We will need to put together a 32 minute effort on both nights.”

Freedom (1-1) split their opening weekend on the road in Wilkes Barre, topping Mid Valley 46-44, but losing to Holy Redeemer 61-56.

Aaron Levy and Jaden Tillett paced the team over the weekend, scoring 25 points and 30 points in both games combined respectively. Freedom took on Bethlehem Catholic on Tuesday and travel to Spring Ford on Friday.

The Golden Hawks (1-1) earned a split at the Jeff Dailey Memorial Tournament last weekend as well, falling to league contender Pocono Mountain West 65-58 and then beating up on Roberto Clemente 64-26.

Alex Cercado had a team-high 26 points in the loss to the Panthers, as they got back into action last night with a city rivalry game against Freedom. Becahi closes out the week on Friday against Pocono Mountain East.