PALMER TWP. — Their scarlet letter was actually a storm cloud shaded with purple and gold, a constant reminder of the unique futility that had gone from being their inheritance to becoming their identity. And it was so bad, it was even beyond having a sense of humor about it. “A lot of people were doubting us, like in school,” Josh Parrish said. “And there were some kids in our school that said, ‘Yo, just get the record.’ We were like, ‘No, we’re not going to get the record.’ ” And so they didn’t. The Palisades boys basketball team won a game Friday night, and it’s worth writing that in such a simple, declarative phrase because no one’s been able to say it or write it for four years. The Pirates, the Upper Bucks County Team That Couldn’t, beat Palmerton, 45-35, in a Colonial League game played near a mountain situated somewhere between Allentown and the North Pole. They ended an 85-game losing streak that stretched back to the final game of the 2004-05 season, when the team’s five seniors were in eighth grade. Friday’s victory also means Palisades (1-12 overall, 1-9 CL) will not equal or break what is believed to be the state record of 88 losses set by Mifflinburg, which is located near State College, from 1972-76. “Just seeing the clock wind down and us on top for the first time,” senior guard Ryan Gelatt said. “It’s great.” The Pirates had gone through three coaches during the streak, and the fourth — coach Michael Viglianti, who’s now in his second season — had said before the year started that he would not put up with another O-fer. As his players whooped and hollered and smiled the sort of smiles it takes four years to create, Viglianti made his way around the gym to accept hugs and handshakes from dozens of Palisades fans who made the trip. Back when he took the job in Kintnersville, Viglianti, a longtime former assistant at Easton, acknowledged that some friends told him they thought he needed a straitjacket. Now? “I’m so happy for them,” he said Friday night of his players. “Think about the seniors right now — these seniors had never experienced a win — never.” It almost didn’t happen on Friday, either. Facing a Blue Bombers (1-14, 0-11 CL) team that they thought they could beat, the Pirates succumbed to the pressure and played a tentative first quarter in which they missed all 11 of their shots and found themselves trailing, 14-4. But they got it together and pulled within one at halftime before assuming the lead early in the second half an eventually pulling away. They no longer have a losing streak. Now, they have a winning streak. “That’s right,” Parrish said, “1-0.”