Eric Luckenbill is not into moral victories.
As a first-year head coach, he wants to win.
Naturally.
His young and inexperienced Emmaus team is still going through growing pains in the early part of the season and still trying to find its way.
Thus far, the Hornets have only won once in five games and are still looking for that signature win, one that may springboard them to hopefully more wins as they approach the Christmas break.
On Tuesday night at home in an electric atmosphere at ‘The Hive’, Emmaus didn’t come away with the result they were looking for as they once again came up on the short end of the scoreboard.
But the effort they put forward against one of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s top teams in Allen, which already owns a victory over league favorite Parkland, should serve notice that this team is not to be taken lightly moving forward.
“It was a fun game and the kids played hard tonight.” said Luckenbill following his team’s gutty 61-55 loss to the Canaries. “We had two really, really good days of practice leading up to this game and we knew what we wanted to do. We got off to a slow start being down 17-8 after the first quarter and then we went on a 21-5 run to end the second quarter.
“It’s there,” he added. “We know what kind of a team we can be when we buy-in to our game plan and I was really proud of the boys tonight.”
Emmaus, which was coming off of its first victory of the season last Friday in a 78-60 win over winless Freedom, certainly gave Allen everything they could handle – and then some.
The Hornets led Allen by five at the half – 27-22 – and then extended their lead twice to nine points early into the third quarter. Junior Jacob Ross, who is emerging into one of the league’s top big men, was huge in the quarter scoring eight of his team-high 17 points.
Even into the fourth quarter after Allen had rallied to take a 44-42 lead, Emmaus still went toe-to-toe with the Canaries staying within striking distance before the visitors were finally able to pull away late for the victory.
“You have to give them credit,” said Luckenbill of Allen. “They made a lot of good shots and their star player (Tiheed Wise) played like a star tonight. He’s a great player.
“We knew they were going to make an adjustment at halftime and one of the adjustments they made was getting him the ball at the high post a little more. He didn’t just have 22 points, but he was very unselfish and made some great passes.”
Wise, who was held to just six points in the first half, exploded for 16 after halftime, including seven points in the fourth quarter. Teammate Zay Wimberly came off the bench and also provided a spark finishing with 12 points for the Canaries who improved to 3-0 on the season.
For Emmaus, junior Lucas Stephan reached double figures for the fifth time in six games finishing with 12 points.
Despite the loss, Luckenbill said his team can certainly build off of this performance.
“We said in the locker room (after the game) that we are not into moral victories,” he said. “It’s not fun to lose but this was a game we knew were going to compete in. I told the boys that we wanted to play to win and not just to lose and that’s exactly what we did. We need to get better at practice tomorrow and be ready to go for Friday.”
Emmaus (0-3 EPC/1-5 overall) will host East Stroudsburg North on Friday at 7 p.m. on Middle School Night.
To stay up to date with Emmaus sports follow on ‘X’ and like Emmaus sports on facebook.
Allen 61, Emmaus 55
All – Tiheed Wise 7 6-6 22, Jaylen Walker 3 0-0 6, Cam Pearsall 2 4-6 8, Majesty Hawkins 1 3-4 5, Naz Chapman 0 1-2 1. Subs. Zay Wimberly 5 1-2 12, Obed Lockhart 2 0-0 5, Teshon Gaynair 1 0-0 2, Kymahni Moss 0. Totals: FG 21, FT 15-20, 3s (4 – Wise 2, Wimberly, Lockhart)
Em – Tim Toles 1 1-2 3, Lucas Stephan 5 1-1 12, Matt Rooney 2 2-2 6, Noeah Newsome 2 2-4 6, Jacob Ross 8 1-1 17. Subs. Ben Grochowski 1 0-0 3, Robert Edwards 0, Jayden Swan 1 2-2 4, Cole Stuchko 2 0-2 4. Totals: FG 22, FT 9-14, 3s (2 – Stephan, Grochowski)
All – 15-7-22-17 – 61
Em – 8-19-15-13 – 55