1/26/19
RECAP — Playing a desperate Northampton team looking to get wins to reach the post-season, Emmaus got all they could handle from the K-Kids and more on Friday night before a near-capacity crowd at ‘The Hive.’
But down the stretch, the veteran experience of the home team proved a little too much as the Hornets closed out the home portion of their regular-season with a hard-fought, three-point win 52-49.
The victory was the fifth straight for head coach Steve Yoder’s team which improved to 15-3 overall and 10-2 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. It was also the second win over the K-Kids this season (60-48 first meeting) for the Hornets who won nine of 10 homes games.
“They (Northampton) were 9-7 coming into tonight and they have a gauntlet of schedule coming up so they’re in desperate mode and we knew that we were going to absolutely get their best effort and we did. They played hard, but we were a little bit better tonight,” said the Hornets 11th year coach.
Senior Zach Sabol scored 13 of his team-high 21 points in the second half as Emmaus outscored Northampton 13-6 in the third quarter to open up a 36-28 heading into the final eight minutes of play after the Hornets held just a one-point lead (23-22) at the break.
Classmate Mark Swedberg added 15 points in the win — 11 coming in the first half — for Emmaus which shot just 37 percent (10 of 27) in the first two quarters, but a blistering 54 percent (12 of 22) in the second half.
Sabol’s six points in the final eight minutes proved key along with senior Cameron Brooks five points off the bench and sophomore Danny Bohman’s two free throws with under a minute to play.
Northampton (5-7 EPC, 9-8 overall) was led in scoring by junior Donte Rodriguez who matched Sabol with scoring honors finishing with 21 points — 13 in the second half. Fellow junior Zach Gula added 11 points and classmate Spencer Cole added eight for the K-Kids who had nine 3-pointers in the loss.
Up next for Emmaus will a second match-up at rival Parkland on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Hornets won the first meeting 63-50 back on December 11. This will be the first of four road contests to close out the regular-season.
“I love it, let’s go play,” said Yoder. “It’s going to prepare us for the post-season. I don’t know if we mathematically have qualified for EPC’s, but I’d like to think we are pretty darn close. We’ve already qualified for districts and we’re not going to have any home games. If we’re fortunate to take care of business we could have one home game in the league playoffs, but the reality is the road is coming.”
“This is the kind of team I’m excited about taking on four road games. We’re going to have our hands full, don’t get me wrong, but because they have done such a good job and put themselves in a good position, there’s not going to be that desperation. We’re just going to play and continue to improve. “
Like Emmaus boys basketball on facebook, follow @Emmaussports on twitter for continued updates on the team throughout the season.
Northampton – Gilliard 0 0-0 0, Rodriguez 9 0-0 21, Cole 3 0-1 8, Gula 4 0-0 11, Harris 1 2-2 5. Subs: Altomare 1 0-0 2, Christman 1 0-0 2. Totals: FG 19, FT 2-3, 3s (9 – Rodriguez 3, Gula 3, Cole 2, Harris)
Emmaus – Diehl 2-8 0-0 4, Parvel 0-5 1-2, Sabol 9-19 3-5 21, Swedberg 7-13 1-1 15, Bohman 1-1 2-2 4. Subs: Brooks 2-2 0-0 5, Boyko 1-2 0-0 2, Moyer 0 0-0 0, Boyd 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 22-49, FT 7-10, 3s (1 – Brooks)
Nhamp – 14 – 8 – 6 – 21 – 49
Em – 14 – 9 – 13 – 16 – 52
JV – Em 57-51