With members of the 1986 District XI Championship team looking on, Lucas Stephan was hoping to put on a good show on Friday night at ‘The Hive’ for the former alumni in attendance.
In their first home game of the near year with an important matchup against visiting Pocono Mountain East, Stephan and his Emmaus teammates found themselves trailing most of the night after being outscored in the first three quarters of the game.
But that’s when the Hornets junior said enough is enough.
With Stephan coming off the bench to score 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, Emmaus was able to put together their best quarter of the game — and at the perfect time — as they rallied for a 54-43 win over the Cardinals.
“It was a great comeback, a great win, a team win,” said Stephan on The Eastern Pa Sports Network’s LIVE coverage of the game. “We had to step it up in the second half and we did.
“Coach [Eric Luckenbill] told us in the locker room at half that we needed to be more aggressive, pass the ball more, hit more of our shots and we did that in the second half. We took over the game.”
The Hornets, who had trailed by as much as 11 points after halftime, used a 34-14 run down the stretch as they celebrated a win that capped off a memorable night, which included the only District XI championship team in school history from 40 years ago being honored at halftime.
“I think we had six 1,000-point scorers here tonight which is so neat,” said Luckenbill, the Hornets first year coach. “Our booster club was amazing putting this alumni night together. It’s something that I asked if we could do when I got here last Spring. It meant a lot having so many former alumni here tonight.”
The four-point victory was the second this week for Emmaus, who also picked up 63-59 road win at Stroudsburg on Tuesday. The Hornets, who started the season 0-4, have now won six of their last nine games as they improved to 6-7 overall and 4-5 in the EPC and are very much in the playoff race for the final spot in the eight-team league tournament.
Early on, neither Emmaus nor PM East looked like playoff teams with the two squads combining for just 10 points after the first eight minutes.
The Cardinal, who were coming off an 18-point loss to Whitehall, outscored the Hornets 17-13 in the second quarter to take a six-point lead at the break and then extended their lead to eight (38-30) heading into the final quarter.
Emmaus then took over the game, outscoring the Cardinal 24-5 and limiting them to just one field goal in the final eight minutes.
“We said at halftime that we needed to get back to being us,” explained Luckenbill. “When we are ‘us’ we can be a special team. That 34-14 run is because we started to do a little bit more team basketball which is always something we look for.”
Junior Matt Rooney also finished in double figures with 10 points, seven of those coming in the key fourth quarter, while classmate Jake Ross, who was held in check for most of the night, added seven points in the final eight minutes of the game.
Sophomore Kellen Hafner played significant minutes in the second half scoring five points and a number of rebounds while classmate Ty Laird also provided a spark off the bench.
“We have an incredible sophomore crew,” said Luckenbill. “We have 14 sophomores in our program, and they love playing for each other. You can see it on the JV level and you see it when they get a chance to play on the varsity.
“Ty did a great job tonight and Kellen played the most minutes he has all season.”
Pocono Mountain East was paced by sophomore Christian Varkanis who had four 3-pointers and a team-high 14 points. Senior Aiden Pierre came off the bench to add 11 points – all in the second half – for the Cardinal who dropped to 4-5 in the EPC and 7-7 overall.
Emmaus will return to the hardwood on Monday at 6 p.m. as they travel to Bethlehem Catholic. The Hornets will also host Whitehall in a key matchup on Thursday followed by a non-league game at Pottstown on Saturday afternoon.
“We have a huge challenge next week,” said Luckenbill. “We are going to play two of the coaches that I have enormous respect for in coach (Scott) McClary at Becahi who a mentor of mine and coach (Jeff) Jones at Whitehall who has been doing it a long time.
“I’m going to spend a lot of time this weekend just trying to put my guys in position to be successful and we are going to roll the ball out on Monday and see what happens.”
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Emmaus 54, PM East 43
PME – Dominic McManus 9, Scottie Lockley 0, Christian Varkanis 14, Anthony Tapia 3, Fred Allicock 0, Isaac Yfante 4, Jayden Tucker 0, Kenyon Bell 2, Aiden Pierre 11. Totals: FG 15, FT 5-14, 3s (7 — Varkanis 4, McManus, Yfante, Pierre)
Em – Jayden Swan 1 0-0 2, Ben Grochowski 1 0-2 3, Matt Rooney 2 5-6 10, Noeah Newsome 1 0-0 3, Jake Ross 3 2-2 7, Lucas Stephan 6 4-6 18, Tim Toles 1 0-0 2, Mitch Pisarcik 0, Tyler Leman 0, Othello Karto 0, Ty Laird 1 0-3 2, Kellen Hafner 2 0-0 5. Totals: FG 18, FT 11-19, 3s (7 — Stephan 2, Grochowksi, Rooney, Newsome, Hafner, Ross)
PME – 6-17-15-5 – 43
Em – 4-13-13-24 – 54
GAME REPLAY: https://easternpasportsnet1.mixlr.com/recordings/2997055
Members of the 1986 District XI Championship Team. From L-to-R: Dan Lizun, Howie Renner, Scott Siegfried, Duke Scott, assistant coach Carl Smartschan, Matt Sabol and Geoff O’Brien. Photo: Emmaus Athletics.