Trailing by 11 points at the half after managing just five field goals through the first two quarters, Emmaus was able to find its offense after intermission and get stops on the defensive end in their season-opener on Friday night against Old Forge in the Wilkes-Barre Tournament.
But the Hornets late game rally fell just short as the Blue Devils were able to hold on in a low scoring 45-42 affair, spoiling Eric Luckenbill’s coaching debut at Emmaus.
“The boys played their hearts out today,” said the Hornets first year coach following the game on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network’s coverage. “We just did not have a good first half and I didn’t do a good enough job preparing them offensively for the kind of half court pressure that Old Forge was going to give us. We definitely weren’t ready to play offense tonight the way that we know we can and need to.”
“They (Old Forge) are an excellent team. They won 21 games last year and made the state final eight for a reason. The way we came out in the second half and played together with heart and learned from our mistakes in the first half was really inspiring for me.”
Trailing by three in the waning seconds of the game, the Hornets had two chances to tie the game and send it into overtime, but both Lucas Stephan and Matt Rooney’s 3-point attempts both came up short.
Emmaus played from behind all night long, falling behind 12-7 after the first quarter and 25-14 at halftime. The second half, however, was a different story as the Hornets outscored Old Forge 28-20.
“The message at halftime was that we needed to play team basketball,” said Luckenbill. “It’s something that has been plaguing us at times throughout the summer and fall. There are times that we look awesome and at times it looks like that we have guys that are trying to do too much because they are worried about the score or the situation.
“It’s not going to be an overnight success with what we are trying to do here. It’s going to take time, and we’ve been working on it for months and it’s only going to get stronger and better as you can see it definitely did in the second half tonight.”
Stephan and Jake Ross each had 12 points to lead Emmaus. Stephan had three 3-pointers in the game, while Ross had a big second half with nine points and a number of rebounds.
Junior Matt Rooney added eight points despite playing in foul trouble most of the night, and classmate Noeah Newsome, who was making his first career varsity start after transferring from Executive Education, also added eight.
Old Forge had a balanced scoring attack led by senior Cameron Parker’s game-high 15 points. Classmate Logan Fanning added 10, while fellow seniors Camren Krushnowski and Ryan DeMarco had nine and eight points, respectively.
In Saturday afternoon’s consolation game against Holy Redeemer, Emmaus was outscored in three of the four quarters as they once again had to play from behind in a 57-45 setback. It’s the second consecutive season that the Hornets start 0-2.
Stephan, who was named to the all-tournament team, led the Hornets with his second consecutive 12-point game of the season. Rooney and Ross just missed out on double figures as each finished with nine.
Cody Quaglia and Charlie Schaffer paced Holy Redeemer (1-0) with 12 points apiece. Quron Drayton added nine.
The host school Wilkes-Barre wound up winning the championship after defeating Old Forge 51-43 in the finals.
Emmaus will return to action on Monday at 7 p.m. as they travel to Rockne Hall to face Central Catholic in their EPC opener. The Vikes (0-1) dropped their season-opener, falling to Trinity 77-59.
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Old Forge 45, Emmaus 42 (Friday)
Em – 7-7-12-16 – 42
OF – 12-13-9-11 – 45
Scoring:
Em – Tim Toles 0, Lucas Stephan 4 2-2 12, Matt Rooney 4 0-0 8, Noeah Newsome 3 0-0 8, Jake Ross 5 0-0 12, Ben Grochowski 1 0-0 2, Nathan Bottjer 0, Jayden Swan 0, Othello Karto 0, Cole Stuchko 0, Mason Weber 0. Totals: FG 17, FT 2-2, 3s (6 – Stephan 2, Newsome 2, Ross 2)
OF – Ryan DeMarco 2 3-5 8, Cameron Parker 4 4-8 15, Camren Krushnowksi 3 0-0 9, Logan Fanning 5 0-0 10, Nick Salerno 0, Arthur Askew 1 0-0 3, Chris Rasmus 0. Totals: FG 15, FT 7-13, 3s (7 – Parker 3, Krushnowski 3, DeMarco)
Holy Redeemer 57, Emmaus 46 (Saturday)
HR – Cody Quaglia 4 2-3 12, Quron Drayton 4 0-0 9, Kyaire McLean 3 0-0 6, Max Mohutsky 2 1-1 6, Lucas Shrader 1 0-0 2, Kaden Sepkoski 3 0-0 6, Charlie Schaffer 4 4-6 12, Jack Wasiakowski 0 1-2 1, Logan Schrader 1 1-1 3. Totals: FG 22, FT 9-13, 3s (Quaglia 2, Drayton, Mohutsky)
Em – Tim Toles 0 2-2 2, Lucas Stephan 4 3-5 12, Matt Rooney 4 1-2 9, Noeah Newsome 2 0-0 6, Jake Ross 3 3-4 9, Ben Grochowski 0, Tyler Leman 0 1-2 1, Nathan Bottjer 1 0-0 2, Robert Edwards 1 0-0 2, Cole Stuchko 1 0-0 3, Jayden Swan 0. Totals: 16, FT 10-15, 3s (Newsome 2, Stephan, Stuchko)
HR – 14-14-13-16 – 57
Em – 12-8-9-17 – 46