ALLENTOWN — It was a long time coming.

But Pleasant Valley boys basketball coach Bobby Hahn knows there is still a lot of work ahead.

The Bears accomplished a major goal in qualifying for the District 11 playoffs this season.

But it’s far from their final destination.

A successful campaign for Pleasant Valley ended with a 69-28 loss to Allen in a Class 6A first round contest Tuesday. But the postseason appearance marked a step forward for the program, and showed the Bears where they want to be, and what they need to do to get there.

“They worked their tails off,” said Hahn. “And they did everything they could do to get here. And it was only the second time Pleasant Valley’s made districts since joining the EPC. So they were really good. So we were proud of accomplishing that. Every year, we look to just do one more. We’ve got the (Slatington Rotary) Christmas tournament. We’ve got this. And we hope that next year, we get back and then maybe get a win in it and keep moving forward. I think that’s probably the big thing.”

The seventh-seeded Canaries flexed their muscle with an 8-0 run near the end of the first quarter to build a 16-7 advantage, and used a 13-0 surge during the second period to push their lead to 33-13 with 1:33 left in the first half. “I think that this is one of those games that kind of showed that playoff experience versus not playoff experience,” said Hahn. “And it was very difficult for us to kind of duplicate that kind of pressure and stuff in practice. And I thought the kids came out playing really hard. And we just couldn’t hit a basket, which allowed Allen to get into their fast break. And then we couldn’t set up our defense. And without being able to set up our defense, they got a lot of baskets.

“They played very well. Credit to Allen. They hit their threes. They are the third best in the league in threes. They hit and they knocked down threes. They’re good in transition. So it’s a very tough team to stop. And they were on tonight. And we just didn’t have it tonight, unfortunately. But hopefully, we’ll learn from the experience for the younger guys on our team, and we can be back in the same spot next year.”

Emmanuel Polanco was sensational for Allen, hitting three treys — including one near the buzzer at the end of the first half — and scoring a game-high 21 points.

The Canaries scored the first 15 points of the first half, and put the game into mercy rule, going up by 30, with 4:16 to play in the third period.

“We earned an opportunity to be with each other this postseason,” said Allen head coach Darnell Braswell. “We worked really hard for that, and I think these kids finally understand that. We haven’t played since Feb. 3, and you can tell these guys were happy to be out there. We shared the ball tremendously today. We were very selfless and made the extra passes, guys were playing with high intensity, with a high motor and we were rewarded on the scoreboard. So I’m just grateful that we have four more days together, three days of practice and play again on Saturday against one of the best teams in the area and in the state (Pocono Mountain West).

“So I’m just happy right now. I’m happy for these kids, they worked really hard to get to this point.”

In addition to Polanco, the Canaries also got a big game from Keith Jackson, who scored 18 points.

Zach Prator’s 10 points paced the 10th-seeded Bears.

While it wasn’t the end Hahn envisioned for his team, the season represented the growth it needed, something the coach wants to see continue next year.

“The neatest thing was, we looked at one point as we went into or after Christmas, at one point, we were 7-2 after Christmas, and we thought, ‘Wow, I mean, 7-2, that’s pretty good to win that many games.’ And we were really happy. At no point this year did we ever just have our stuff and then roll with it. We were constantly inputting more. We were constantly learning more. We were constantly changing up, depending on our matchups and what we needed. And these guys did a great job rolling with the punches and doing what they had to.

“It wasn’t like they only had a one-track mind. They did whatever it took to win. If we had to switch up how we played — we’d started pushing the ball more and running more near the end of the year, which we didn’t all year — and they did really well with that. So it was just fun to see how they adapted as it went. And I look forward, and hope they can adapt as well in the next year. So we don’t take any steps back, and we keep taking steps forward.”

FINAL FAREWELL ... Pleasant Valley will lose seniors Prator, JJ Moore, Quinn Kauffman, Kellen Green and Daniel Baker to graduation. Prator was the team’s leading scorer at 19.27 points per game, and earned Second Team Eastern Pennsylvania Conference honors this year.

MOVING ON ... Allen will face No. 2 seed Pocono Mountain West Saturday at Stroudsburg in the quarterfinals.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Haines 2-0-0-4, Loch 0-4-4-4, Kauffman 0-0-0-0, Solt 1-0-0-3, Moore 1-1-2-3, Green 0-0-0-0, Sacci 1-0-0-2, Breuer 0-0-0-0, Prator 2-5-8-10, Outten 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 8-10-14-28.

ALLEN

Jackson 8-1-1-18, Wise 3-0-0-9, Walker 3-0-0-7, Wimberly 1-2-4-4, Lockhart 2-0-0-5, Polanco 8-2-2-21, Baez 0-2-2-2, Stokes 1-0-0-2, Alejandro 0-1-2-1, Chapman 0-0-0-0, Reyes 0-0-0-0, Edwards 0-0-0-0, Moss 0-0-0-0, Halley 0-0-0-0, Cerda 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-8-11-69.

Pleasant Valley 7 10 6 5 - 28

Allen 16 20 22 11 - 69

Three-pointers: Pleasant Valley - Prator 1, Solt 1. Allen - Polanco 3, Jackson 1, Wise 1, Walker 1, Lockhart 1.

Records: Pleasant Valley (11-12); Allen (14-9)