3/10/19
Just a week ago, Steve Yoder thought his team had seen the best player that they had faced all season when East Stroudsburg South senior Jeremiah Anderson torched Emmaus for a career-high 38 points in the Cavaliers 59-51 over the Hornets in the District XI Class 6A Consolation game.
Coatesville’s Jhamir Brickus changed all that on Saturday, and with a performance for the ages, single-handily put to bed Emmaus’ season.
Thud.
The lightning-quick junior guard received plenty of ‘oohing and aahing’ from the pro-Coatesville crowd that filled two-thirds of Pottstown High School as he took apart the Hornets defense for a career-high 41 points as the Red Raiders won a run-and-shoot affair with the Hornets 85-76 in the opening-round of the PIAA State Class 6A playoffs.
Brickus, who has Division 1 offers from LaSalle, Rider and Bryant and interest from several other schools, literally put his team on his back as the District One runners-up jumped all over Emmaus from the opening whistle and never relinquished the lead, despite the Hornets making several charges.
“Number 2 (Brickus) is a first team all state guard, he is the real deal,” said the Hornets 11th year coach in the hallway outside of his team’s locker room. “He’s a special, special player. He’s as good as a point guard I’ve seen in a long, long time. He probably would have made (former Hornet standouts) David and Matt (Kachelries ’17) look slow.”
The 2018-19 version of Emmaus basketball certainly didn’t have an answer for him, and because of it, the Hornets season once again ends in the opening-round of the state playoffs for the second year in a row.
A season with so much anticipation now over.
It certainly feels empty with no championship of any sorts for the program that was expected to compete for an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) and District XI Championship and came up empty on both tries.
The loss, in which the team allowed the most points they had given up all season (85), was just a painful reminder of a disappointing post-season that saw this senior-laden team lose three straight and four of its last five, closing the books on a 21-8 year.
Getting off to a yet again another slow against Coatesville, who brought in a gaudy 26-2 record, certainly didn’t help.
Even before fans had a chance to settle into their seats, the Red Raiders were off and running on the scoreboard as they raced out to a 9-0 lead before settling for settling for a 23-15 advantage at the end the first quarter with Brickus canning three of his six 3-pointers on the day.
The eight-point margin remained the same at halftime (39-31) as Emmaus hung with the Red Raiders in the second quarter and even for the entire second half they went toe-to-toe, but the quick start proved to be too much for the Hornets to overcome despite several runs and getting the margin to as few as four points in the second half.
“Over the summer and during much of the season we were a fast starting team,” pointed out Yoder. “They (the players) admitted that the Allen loss (in District semifinals) rocked them a little bit and it was hard to get back on track, but I think more than anything tonight’s slow start was due in large part to Coatesville.”
Brickus wound up with 18 points in the first half and added 23 more in the second and missed just five shots – 14 of 19 – the entire game. His classmate, Dapree Bryant, added 18 points in the win for Coatesville, which advances to the Sweet 16 on Wednesday vs Norwin from the Pittsburgh area.
For Emmaus, senior Mark Swedberg just missed matching his career-high for points in a game as he led with 23 points, 16 coming in the second half, including a strong third quarter (12 points).
Fellow senior Zach Sabol scored 14 of his 18 points after halftime and closed out his final year at Emmaus with 518 points moving him into third all-time on the boys scoring list for most points since the 2011-12 season. He finished his career with 1,093 career points and 1,000-plus rebounds.
Two other seniors – Bryce Diehl (17 points) and Ethan Parvel (11) – also reached double figures in their final high school games for the Hornets who were appearing in the state playoffs for the fourth straight year.
It was also the final game for the team’s four other seniors –Devon Boyko, Cameron Brooks, Josh Moyer and Stefan Rollins.
“I said to my assistant coach (Eric) Farkas when I walked out of the locker room that this is the most upbeat I’ve been after a season ending that I’ve ever seen,” said Yoder who confirmed that he will return for a 12th season in 2019-20.
” There were hugs and tears, but more than anything there were smiles and laughter reminiscing about the year. Knowing these boys for as long as we did and them knowing us, we built a lot of strong relationships over the years. The family aspect of our program really came out after our game tonight. There was a lot of love in there and we are going to miss them.”
Coatesville 85, Emmaus 76 (PIAA State Playoffs)
Emmaus – Bryce Diehl 6-11 4-8 17, Ethan Parvel 4-13 0-0 11, Mark Swedberg 7-12 8-10 23, Zach Sabol 8-9 2-2 18, Devon Boyko 1-1 0-0 2. Subs: Cam Brooks 0-2 1-2 1, Danny Bohman 1-1 0-1 2, Josh Moyer 1-1 0-0 2, Ryan Todd 0-0 0-0, Mason Boyd 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 26, FT 13-22, 3s 4 (Parvel 3, Diehl)
Coatesvile – Donovan Brickus 1-3 2-2 5, Dapree Bryant 6-10 6-8 18, Jhamir Brickus 14-19 7-10 41, John Proctor 1-6 0-0 2, Aaron Young 2-3 0-0 4, Dymere Miller 1-3 2-2 5, Ricky Santiago 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 27, FT 19-26, 3s (9 -Jhamir Brickus 6, Donovan Brickus 1, Miller 1, Bryan 1)
Em – 15 – 16 – 25 – 20 – 76
Coat – 23 – 16 – 26 – 20 – 85