After an 18-day layoff since its last game, head coach Eric Luckenbill’s team didn’t get off to the start they were hoping for in last night’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference road matchup at Stroudsburg.
Early on, Emmaus was hurt by turnovers and struggled to score on the offensive end.
Despite that, the Hornets still only found themselves down by five points after eight minutes with still three quarters to play.
And that was more than enough time for Eric Luckenbill’s team to regroup as they picked up a key victory to start the new year.
“We’re coming upon a stretch of games against really good EPC teams that we know we need to battle and play really good basketball to beat,” said the Hornets first year coach outside his team’s locker room after a much-closer-than-it-should-have-been four-point win, 63-59 win over the Mounties.
“I have a lot of respect for this Stroudsburg team. I spent a lot of time over the break watching them and they have some really good young players, and they are well coached. We didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to, but the second quarter was special for us. We played probably 10 or 11 different guys in that quarter, and we really stopped some of the bleeding and then in the third quarter we extended and as a young team we learned some really good lessons in the fourth quarter.
He added: “We were able to make foul shots and baskets late and execute when we needed to and I’m really proud of the boys.”
Two of those boys, juniors Jake Ross and Lucas Stephan both had nights for the Hornets who, with the victory, have already equaled their win total from a year ago (5-7 overall/3-5 EPC).
Ross, the team’s leading scorer, once again led Emmaus finishing with a double-double scoring a game-high 21 points to go along with 18 rebounds, while Stephan came off the bench to add 20, including three 3-pointers in the first half.
Besides the efforts from those two, classmate Matt Rooney also reached double figures with 10 points, including two key free throws with 15.8 seconds left in the game that sealed the victory.
“Jake was great, Matt made free throws down the stretch and Lucas was a huge spark off the bench,” said Luckenbill. “I also want to give a special shout out to a couple of seniors in Mitch Pisarcik and Jayden Swan who really played some great minutes that really helped us win the game.”
The Hornets outscored Stroudsburg 22-9 in the second quarter behind Ross’s 10 points to build an eight-point lead (31-23) at the break. The advantage grew to as much as 14 points with 5:30 left in the game before the Mounties made a late rally to make it a one possession game in the waning seconds.
Fortunately for Emmaus, though, they were able to hold on and get the win.
“We know we are a good basketball team,” said Luckenbill. “I’m not worried about our record. Our record tells a story, but I think our story is that we’re better than our record is and we’re going to show that. We can’t control what happened before, but we’re playing some really competitive games coming up.”
“We have a stretch of games that we know we can win but we also know that we need to be prepared and execute.”
Stroudsburg, which dropped to 3-5 in the EPC and 6-6 overall, was led by junior Jarel Jackson who scored 12 of his team-high 15 points after halftime. Sophomore Tae El-Bassiouni added 14, junior Josh Ivers-Green had 12 and freshman Alex Rodriguez had nine off the bench for the Mounties.
Emmaus will return to action on Friday at 7 p.m. as they host Pocono Mountain East (4-3 EPC/7-5) on Alumni Night. The game will be carried LIVE on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network beginning at 6:45 p.m.
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Emmaus 63, Stroudsburg 59
Em – Tim Toles 2 1-1 5, Ben Grochowski 1 0-0 3, Matt Rooney 3 3-4 10, Noeah Newsome 1 0-0 2, Jake Ross 9 2-2 21, Lucas Stephan 8 1-1 20, Jayden Swan 0, Cole Stuchko 0, Ted Laird 0, Ty Laird 0, Mitch Pisarcik 0. Totals: FG 24, FT 7-8, 3s (6 – Stephan 3, Grochowski, Rooney, Ross)
Sb – Jarel Jackson 5 3-4 15, Kam Knight 1 0-0 2, Tae El-Bassiouni 3 7-10 14, Josh Ivers-Green 5 2-2 12, Isaac Gibbs 0, Aren Quintero 3 1-2 7, Deon Davis 0, Alex Rodriguez 3 0-0 9. Totals: FG 20, FT 13-20, 3s (6 – Quintero 3, Jackson 2, El-Bassiouni)
Em – 9-22-15-17 – 63
Sb – 14-9-11-25 – 59
JV – Emmaus 58-49 (Kellen Hafner 15, Ted Laird 13, Tyler Leman 11)
Fresh – Stroudsburg won