3/1/19
The long and frustrating drought of winning a District XI championship is now at 34 years for the Emmaus boys basketball program.
Not since winning its one and only title way back in 1986, have the Hornets been able to celebrate claiming the district’s top prize.
Now, who knows the next time that this program will put itself in a better position than the one that they put themselves into heading into the 2018-19 season.
As the No. 1 overall seed in the Class 6A field and the favorite to win its second district title in school history, Emmaus once again fell short as Allen — a team it had defeated twice this season — came out and punched the Hornets in the mouth and walked out of Freedom’s Joseph J. McIntyre Gymnasium with a stunning 74-64 upset victory in the District XI semifinals.
“We are all kinda in shock, saddened and heartbroken for the boys,” said a somber Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder outside of his team’s locker room. “It just was tough time to play one of worst games of the year. I got a vibe a few minutes into the game that we just weren’t we needed to be for some reason.”
Huh? How does that happen?
After falling short of attaining one of its goals and settling for a runner-up finish in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs, the Hornets were in no better position to at least reach the finals after earning the top seed, receiving a first-round bye and watching the No.2 (Nazareth), No.3 (Freedom) and No.4 (Pocono Mountain East) seeds all lose in the quarterfinals.
As the No.1 seed, Emmaus took care of its business as they shook off the heartbreaking two-point loss to Becahi in the EPC championship game and opened with a convincing 76-60 win over ninth-seeded Pocono Mountain West.
All they had to do in order to reach the finals for the first time since the 2013-14 season, was get past a 14-9 Allen squad, featuring four underclassmen in the starting lineup, for the third time this season.
It never happened.
And that’s what left Emmaus fans perplexed on Wednesday night as they watched Allen, and their fans, celebrating the stunning victory.
The fifth-seeded Canaries, who were coming off an emotional 72-69 overtime win over Pocono Mountain East in its opening-round game, simply outplayed the Hornets for nearly the entire game and played like a team a lot more hungrier to win a district title.
“It was tough night,” said Yoder. “Our layups didn’t drop. We turned the ball over (17 times) and a lot of them them were unforced turnovers. We were pretty good against the press, we just had a lot of lapses and then offensively we couldn’t make any outside shots.”
“They played better than us tonight,” he added. “Credit Allen, they were ready to play and they executed and we just weren’t. I thought they would be (ready).”
And now, it’s Allen and not Emmaus that will be headed to Saturday’s title game as the Canaries will take on seventh-seeded Parkland which defeated East Stroudsburg South, the No. 11 seed, 52-49 in the other semifinals.
Allen had a balanced scoring attack with four players reaching double figures. Freshman Nate Ellis shared top scoring honors on the night with a team-high 17 points, classmate Alexis Adames and sophomore Emmanuel Ozuna each had 16 and junior A’quelle Adderley added 14 for the Canaries who are looking for their first district title since the 2010-11 season.
Emmaus was led in scoring by senior Zach Sabol who shared scoring honors with Ellis, finishing with a game-high 17 points. Sabol scored 13 of his points after halftime and was in foul trouble most of the night before fouling out with :20 seconds left in game.
Classmates Mark Swedberg added 13 points — 11 in the second half — and Ethan Parvel added 12 for the Hornets.
Emmaus will somehow look to regroup as they’ll once again be in a familiar position playing in a consolation round game for the third straight season on Saturday.
The Hornets will take on East Stroudsburg South at 1 p.m. back at Freedom. Both teams are headed to the PIAA state playoffs beginning next Saturday, March 9.
“There are 14 other teams in the district that are sitting home and four left that are playing on Saturday and that needs to be something to be excited about,” said Yoder.
“The end of the season is getting near because states is coming. I hope that the boys have a sense of urgency because this will probably be the last time that they get to play in the valley and that’s something we need to get them excited about.”
“The kids love to play, to practice and get better and hopefully they still have that in them to continue this journey. Tonight was a big disappointment, so let’s see if we can go out and get third place.”
The Emmaus/ES South winner will take on District One’s third-place team (either Lower Merion or Pennridge) in the opening round, while the loser will face the District One runner-up (Abington/Coatesville). Both the Hornets and Cavaliers will have to travel somewhere in District One for their opening-round games.
Allen – Ellis 5 6-6 17, Adames 4 6-8 16, Ozuna 6 3-4 16, Stewart 2 0-1 4, Adderly 5 4-8 14, Young 1 0-0 3, Copeland 2 0-0 4. Totals: FG 25, FT 19-27, 3s (5 – Adames 2, Young, Ozuna)
Emmaus – Sabol 6 5-7 17, Diehl 2 0-0 4, Parvel 6 0-0 12, Swedberg 5 2-3 13, Bohman 3 0-2 8, Brooks 2 1-2 6, Moyer 0 0-0 0, Boyko 1 2-2 4. Totals: FG 26, FT 10-15, 3s (4 – Bohman 2, Swedberg, Brooks)
All – 18 – 13 – 15 – 28 – 74
Em – 8 – 12 – 18 – 24 – 64