The Liberty High School boys basketball teams back-and-forth showdown with Whitehall ended up being a game so nice, the Hurricanes were forced to win it twice.

Liberty, ranked No. 6 by lehighvalleylive, defeated No. 10 Whitehall 60-51 in overtime of an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference cross-divisional matchup, after having a game-winning 3-pointer from Ish Gonzalez waved off because it didnt beat the buzzer in regulation.

The end of that game was crazy, Liberty coach Chad Landis said. I thought we had a bunch of things that we did well, but then we couldnt finish. Every time offensively we sputtered, we were able to get another stop. Probably, for the first time all season, we have to give most of the credit to our defense.

A layup from Whitehall forward Dylan McGinley tied the game at 47 with 1:40 to go and, after a Liberty turnover, the Zephyrs held the ball for the final minute of the game. With 13 seconds left, Whitehall took a timeout and inbounded the ball to Tyler Holubowski.

The senior guard tried to whip a low pass into the key from half-court but Rondell McNeill jumped forward and intercepted it before the Hurricanes called a timeout of their own with 5 seconds left.

We knew in that stretch that we were going to have to pick our spots, Landis said. (Whitehall) is not the type of team you can just turn over a lot, but we were trying to pick our spots to use our pressure when it could be helpful. At the end of the game, the whole game really, we tried to do that. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt; but it was a great game.

Liberty worked the ball to Rahamd Ali who was swarmed by Whitehall defenders, so the senior dished out to Gonzalez. Gonzalez had to take crucial time to create space for the shot, which was on target but 1 second after the clock hit zero.

Quick buckets in overtime from Dallas Holmes and Will Harper gave the Hurricanes a 51-47 lead. Then, McNeil picked off another pass and fed Ali an assist.

We struggled to guard in a couple of our recent games. I thought tonight we needed to step up and defend and I thought we did, Landis said. We showed a lot of toughness in the half-court and full-court defense. (Whitehall) is good. They run great offense; they stick to it. Theyre hard to get out of sync. It was just one of those back-and-forth games all night.

Two foul shots from Holubowski and a bucket from Joseph Lisicky were not enough for the Zephyrs as Harper converted on four shots from the charity stripe and Gonzalez added another two to keep the Hurricanes ahead by multiple possessions throughout overtime.

Harper paced Liberty with 22 points. Gonzalez added 10 and Holmes contributed nine.

The Hurricanes had twice as many players score as the Zephyrs, who had four players get on the board. Both Holubowski and McGinley finished with 18 and Lisicky put up 10.

The loss drops Whitehall to 7-4 and the Zephyrs will hope to get back in the win column when they host Stroudsburg on Tuesday night.

Liberty (7-4) aims to extend its win streak to three in a row when it hosts Emmaus on Tuesday.

Now as we get into the new year, January is the time where teams identify themselves, Landis said. The good teams in our league will identify themselves, the mediocre teams will identify themselves. I think both teams out here played good tonight and tried to take an early stand. There are a lot of games to play.

Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @DesJBoyle. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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Liberty boys basketball doesnt beat buzzer, but does beat Whitehall in OT - lehighvalleylive.com