12/28/18
RECAP — Trailing by 13 points at the half , Emmaus put together a ferocious rally against Monsignor Farrell as they outscored the high school from Staten Island, NY 44-34 in the second half, but the Hornets weren’t able to quite complete the comeback as they suffered their first loss of the season in a wildly-entertaining 73-70 game on Day 2 of the KSA Events Tournament in Orlando, FL on Friday morning.
Coach Steve Yoder’s team, now 7-1 overall, had a chance to tie the game in the waning seconds, but senior Bryce Diehl’s 3-pointer hit the backboard and then the rim before finally rattling out.
With the loss, Emmaus drops into the third-place game at 2 p.m. on Saturday against Tiverton, RI, which fell to Delaware Hayes, OH, 64-44 in the other semifinal.
“I’m frustrated that we loss, but I was proud of the way the boys battled back,” said the Hornets 11th year coach following the game. “We exerted a lot of energy in the second half trying to rally.”
“We outplayed them in the second half and outscored them by 10 points, but we’re not a team that is use to playing from behind. That was new territory for us.”
After a slow start in which they trailed 12-5, Emmaus was able to rally and take a 19-18 lead after the first quarter, but Monsignor Farrell outscored the Hornets 21-7 in the second quarter to take a 39-26 advantage into the break.
“Defensively, we were horrible,” said Yoder of his team’s play in the second quarter. “They were a good team with really good guard play, but giving up 21 points in a quarter isn’t good.”
Senior Zach Sabol had another monster effort in Emmaus’ balanced scoring attack pumping in 16 of his career-high 27 points in the second half. Fellow senior Ethan Parvel added 14 points — all coming in the fourth quarter, while classmate Mark Swedberg added 12. Senior Bryce Diehl added eight points, while another senior, Cameron Brooks added nine before leaving the game in the third quarter with a MCL sprain.
“Zach was great, again,” said Yoder. “Ethan scored all of his points in the last quarter and Cameron was really good today as well. It’s unfortunate what happened to him their with that injury.”
Monsignor Farrell (7-1) was led in scoring by senior Justin Zieris who had a team-high 24 points, including four 3-pointers. Classmate Anthony Clemenza added 17 points, while junior Matt Birnbach added 14 for the Lions who will take on Delaware Hayes in the championship game.
A big difference in the game was at the free-throw line where Monsignor Farrell shot a blistering 84 percent (21 of 25), compared to just 64 percent (20 of 31) for the Hornets.
The two teams combined for 14 3-pointers in the game and 61 points in the final quarter.
Emmaus – Bryce Diehl 2 4-8 8, Cam Brooks 3 1-2 9, Zach Sabol 8 10-14 27, Mark Swedberg 4 3-4 12, Ethan Parvel 5 2-3 14. Subs: Devon Boyko 0 0-0 0, Mason Boyd 0 0-0 0, Ryan Todd 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 22, FT 20-31, 3s (6 – Brooks 2, Parvel 2, Swedberg, Sabol)
Monsignor Farrell – Jordan Kearney 2 3-4 8, Justin Zieris 5 8-10 24, Anthony Clemenza 7 2-3 17, Matt Birnbach 6 2-2 14, Jake Struthers 0 4-4 4. Subs: Patrick Gardner 0 2-2 2, Monahan 2 0-0 6, Andres Von Frickle 0 0-0 0. Totals FG 23, FT 21-25, 3s (8 – Zieris 4, Monhan 2, Kearney 1, Clemenza 1).
Em – 19 – 7 – 12 – 32 – 70
MF – 18 – 21 – 5 – 29 – 73