RECAP >> What’s the old adage: “It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish.”
Well the Emmaus boys basketball team certainly finished strong yesterday afternoon at home at ‘The Hive’ and gave their fans a game that they’ll remember for a long, long time.
Down 20 points midway through the third quarter and seemingly headed towards their second straight defeat, the Hornets put together a comeback for the ages as they rallied for a wildly-entertaining, 70-66 win over East Stroudsburg South in a matchup of the two teams tied atop the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference standings.
Emmaus, which was coming off a disappointing 60-56 road loss Friday to a Whitehall team they had defeated by 30 points earlier in the season, used a 33-point fourth quarter to rally for the victory and stun the Cavaliers.
“Fifteen (15) years coaching here at Emmaus and this is probably one of the all-timers for a regular-season game, for sure,” said Hornets head coach Steve Yoder following the game on The Eastern Pa Sports Network’s LIVE coverage. “We started off great up 14-6 early on but then we started sleepwalking.”
“There’s a lot to process with this one and I don’t have all the answers, but I’m just proud of the effort of my team,” he added. “I’m really proud of the fact that when we challenged them they just let us coach them and they responded and they did everything we asked them to do and it worked out in the end.”
With the victory, Emmaus takes over the top spot in the league standings as they improve to 11-2 while upping their overall mark to 15-4. They also remain undefeated at home at 9-0.
Junior Will Barber led the comeback for the Hornets as he scored 11 of his game-high 22 points in the second half.
“I was really not happy with Will in the first half and I told him such at halftime and what does he do, he just comes out and takes the game over in the second half and I couldn’t be more prouder of him,” said Yoder.
Senior Jake Fotta also came up big in the win with 10 of his career-high 18 points in the final period and sophomore Mike Ekenyere, playing in just his second varsity game, was a huge spark and a crowd favorite off the bench with nine of his career-best 11 points in the second half.
“I’ve been challenging him and waiting for him to step up and boy, did he tonight,” said Yoder of Ekenyere. “Jake Fotta was also consistent the whole way. It was a gutty, gutty effort by this team.
“Last night (vs Whitehall) we didn’t play well and I didn’t know what to expect today but this a great win for the boys. This is such a great group to coach.”
The Hornets shot a blistering 65 percent (15 of 23) in the second half compared to just 37 percent (9 of 24) through the first two quarters.
East Stroudsburg South, which entered play on a six-game winning streak, dropped to 10-3 in the EPC and 16-3 overall. The Cavaliers were hurt in the fourth quarter at the free-throw line where they shot just 50 percent (10 of 20) after shooting 87 percent (7 of 8) through the first three quarters.
Sophomore Jaen Chatman had a team-high 19 points to lead ES South. Senior Logan Santos was right behind with 18 followed by seniors Michael Patterson and Xavier Carnegie who added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Emmaus will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday as they travel to Allen. Emmaus has already defeated the Canaries once this season, 67-57.
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Emmaus 70, ES South 66 (@ Emmaus)
ESS – Michael Patterson 4 4-7 13, Logan Santos 6 4-6 18, Jaen Chatman 5 7-8 19, Xavier Carnegie 4 1-2 11, Michael Green 2 1-5, Joseph DeJesus 0 0-0 0, Jonah Garrison 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Levine 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 21, FT 17-28, 3s – 7 (Santos 2, Chatman 2, Carnegie Patterson)
Em – Will Barber 8 6-7 22, Dylan Darville 2 2-4 6, Jametric Harris 4 3-3 11, Jake Fotta 6 2-2 18, Jackson Lake 1 0-0 2, Teague McCourt 0 0-0 0, Chase Muckey 0 0-0 0, Mike Ekenyere 4 3-8 11, Jack Csensits 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 25, FT 16-24, 3s – 4 (Fotta)
ESS – 21-12-15-18 – 66
Em – 17-7-13-33 – 70
Fouled out: ESS (Green), Em (Harris)
Whitehall 60, Emmaus 56 (@ Whitehall)
Em – 10-18-16-12 – 56
Wh – 16-11-15-18 – 60
Em – Will Barber 9 1-1 20, Dylan Darville 3 1-2 8, Jametric Harris 7 0-0 16, Jake Fotta 2 2-2 6, Chase Muckey 2 0-2 4, Jackson Lake 1 0-0 2, Teague McCourt 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 24, FT 4-7, 3s – 4 (Harris 2, Barber, Darville)
Wh – Luke Keppel 5 6-6 19, Sebastian Orochena 2 2-2 7, Ethan Ringenberger 5 3-4 15, Gavin Kneller 2 1-1 6, Gavin Roberts 3 0-0 6, AJ Hines 3 1-3 7. Totals: FG 20, FT 13-16, 3s – 7 (Keppel 3, Ringenberger 2, Orochena, Kneller)