Liberty led by 17 points over Pleasant Valley toward the end of the third quarter in Tuesday night’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference boys basketball game.

The Bears chopped the advantage to four with under a minute left, but weren’t able to get any closer as the Hurricanes held on for a 50-44 victory.

“They fight and work and never going to give up,” Pleasant Valley head coach Bobby Hahn said. “Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of injuries this year that’s hurt us. We haven’t had a steady lineup, and had guys coming back off of injuries. They did everything they could with the guys that they had. They weren’t used to playing that many minutes and guys off of the bench. They worked so hard, and made sure they never gave up.”

Joe Greene was responsible for all three of Pleasant Valley’s three-pointers, and had 13 points. Greene hit a three to get the Bears within four, but Pleasant Valley ran out of time.

“I was glad to see that Joe (Greene) came back because he was hurt in the fall,” Hahn said. “He was cleared to play in our second game of the season, and he’s been coming back slowly.

“He still doesn’t have all the wind there and coming back respiratorily. We’re glad to see that he’s got a little confidence and looked like himself a little bit tonight.”

The Hurricanes left the game 4-0 on the season, as sophomore Blake Hargrove put up a game-high 18 points for Liberty. Hargrove hit four three-pointers, and was one of four double-digit scorers. Teammate Jake Pukszyn had 12 points.

Pleasant Valley’s (1-4) Zach Prator led the team with 16 points.

“First off, hats off to Pleasant Valley,” Liberty head coach Nigel Long said. “They played their butts off, and they were really tough for us. We were never really comfortable all night. I guess poor coaching by me. I should have probably called a timeout earlier, but I really trusted our guys. We really made some great plays toward the end of the game to secure the win. We had 16 offensive rebounds, which was huge for us because we really didn’t value the ball tonight as well as we typically do.

“Those 16 offensive rebounds were crucial for us. I can’t wait to look at the film to learn what we can do better moving forward.”

It turns out PV wasn’t intimidated by Liberty’s undefeated record.

“Liberty is a great team, and well-coached,” Hahn said. “They’re going to have a great season. They’re 4-0 now after this one, and I was glad to see our guys didn’t look over and see a 3-0 team. They thought we can play and hang. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit a lot of shots and it got down. We hit a couple of shots in the first half, that game is totally different.”

Pleasant Valley didn’t get the buckets to fall its way in the first half and trailed by 10 points at halftime. Liberty went on an 8-0 run to end the first quarter, and PV did the same thing to start the fourth quarter.

Pukszyn made a key basket late in the game which set up back-to-back buckets by Will Palmer to put the Hurricanes up by 10.

“The season is young, but I’ve been thrilled to see our togetherness early in this season,” Long said. “Our rebounding, I’ve been thrilled by that. A lot of work to do, but I’m really proud of our gutsy win tonight.”

HARGROVE’S BIG GAME ... After scoring a game-high 18 points, Long spoke highly of Hargrove. “He’s somebody that can do a little bit of everything,” the coach said. “He can shoot the three, and (has a) pull-up game. One of the things he also does well is just defensively. He’s active defensively and fast, and played really well tonight.”

BUCKETS NOT GOING PV’S WAY ... Pleasant Valley wasn’t able to get buckets in early and trailed Liberty for most of the game. Liberty’s 17-point lead was cut to four late, but the Bears weren’t able to get any closer.

LIBERTY

Hargrove 5-4-4-18, Cole 0-2-2-2, Ford 2-0-0-4, Pukszyn 5-1-1-12, Vermuelen 1-0-2-2, Palmer 4-0-2-8, Holguin 2-0-0-4, Lucas 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-7-11-50.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Fava 0-0-0-0, Greene 5-0-0-13, Weidman 0-0-0-0, Hallenback 2-1-2-5, Moore 3-0-1-6, Prator 6-4-5-16, Pandolfo 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 18-5-8-55.

Liberty 13 11 16 10 - 50

Pleasant Vy. 5 9 12 18 - 44

Three-pointers: Liberty - Hargrove 4, Pukszyn 1; Pleasant Valley - Greene 3.