2/7/19
RECAP — It’s not often this season that Steve Yoder has felt the need to light a fire underneath his team prior to a game.
Wednesday night at Whitehall, as his team was preparing to for its regular-season finale and with the playoffs right around the corner, seemed like the perfect time for the Hornets 11th year head coach.
“These last two games (against CCHS and Nazareth) I didn’t know necessarily what buttons to push to get them fired up,” said Yoder of his squad. “They kinda like when I yell and get crazy and I haven’t done it very much, so tonight I got fired up before the game to see if I can challenge them and they came out and played pretty well.”
Indeed they did and the Zephyrs felt it.
Senior Mark Swedberg pumped in a game-high 20 points, classmate Zach Sabol added 15 as he closed in on a major milestone and Emmaus got back on its winning ways taking apart a slumping Whitehall team for a 29-point, 64-35 win.
The victory was eighth in nine games for the Hornets who finished with the second best record in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) regular-season at 13-3 and are now 18-4 overall.
Emmaus will be the No. 2 seed in the league playoffs which get underway on Friday and will host rival Central Catholic, the seventh seed, at 6 p.m.
In last night’s game, the Hornets swept the season series from Whitehall, defeating the Zephyrs for the sixth straight time dating back to the 2016-17 season.
“We took care of business,” said a satisfied Yoder. “Whitehall kids are well-coached and (coach) Jeff (Jones) does a great job with them. The have a lot of heart, but we were a little bit better tonight.”
“The start of third quarter was critical because we knew they weren’t going to go away. We got the the lead up to 15 points and then in the fourth quarter they couldn’t make a shot and we ran away with it.”
The Hornets led by just five after the opening quarter (17-12), built their lead to 11 at the break (29-18) and then outscored the Zephyrs 35-17 in the second half with 10 different players figuring into the scoring column.
Swedberg, the team’s second leading scorer, had 10 points in each half and finished in double figures for the 10th straight game.
Sabol, meanwhile, reached double figures for the 20th time in 22 games and is now within 13 points of reaching 1,000 for his career and becoming the ninth boys basketball player in program history to reach that mark. He’s also closing in on 1,000 rebounds for his career (966).
“I’ve been talking to everybody in the valley that I can about who is the last player to get 1,000/1,000 and at one point I went back to Larry Miller (former Catasauqua great),” said Yoder. “Miller had 2,700 points and 2,100 rebounds. I’m not aware of any other male athlete that has done that or who has had 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career.”
“I’m not going to coach another kid like Zach probably ever again,” he added. “Everybody knows what I think of him and we love the big fella. We’re happy for him but he could care less about these numbers. He just wants to win.”
For Whitehall, they close the books on a 7-15 season (4-12 EPC) after dropping their final eight games. Junior Joey Lisicky led the Zephyrs with a team-high 12 points.
Up next for Emmaus will be the EPC playoffs which they missed out on a year ago. The Hornets will face the Vikings for the third time this season with Emmaus sweeping the season-series, 54-52 last Friday and a 42-point blowout 79-37 back on December 21.
“We went 18-4 overall, 9-2 in the first half and 9-2 in the second half of the regular-season and that’s real consistent basketball,” said Yoder who last won a league championship back in 2011-12. “The boys should be pretty proud of their efforts, but this is a group that’s been playing for a whole lot more than the regular-season.”
Emmaus is making its fourth appearance in the last five years in the league playoffs. Two years ago as the top overall seed, the Hornets were stunned by eighth-seeded East Stroudsburg North 52-49 at home. The team’s last win came back in the 2015-16 season when they defeated Stroudsburg 53-43 before falling to rival Parkland in the semifinals 44-36.
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Emmaus – Zach Sabol 6 3-3 15, Ethan Parvel 2 0-0 5, Bryce Diehl 3 0-1 6, Mark Swedberg 7 6-8 20, Cam Brooks 2 0-0 6. Subs: Danny Bohman 1 0-0 2, Josh Moyer 1 1-2 3, Devon Boyko 0 0-0 0, Mason Boyd 0 2-2 2, Stefan Rollins 1 0-0 3, Ryan Todd 1 0-0 2, Demetrius Stephanides 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 24, FT 12-16, 3s (4 – Brooks 2, Parvel, Rollins)
Whitehall – Joey Lisicky 3 6-6 12, Tyler Holubowski 1 0-0 3, Dylan McGinley 4 0-0 8, Ricky Melosky 0 1-2 1, Joe Herman 1 2-2 5. Subs: Na’mirr Boatwright 1 0-0 2, Shyhiem Foster 0 0-0 0, Luke Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Marcus Hamscher 0 0-0 0, Lucas Souders 0 0-0 0, Alex Rummel 1 0-0 3, Jake Gladish 0 1-2 1. Totals: FG 11, FT 10-12, 3s (2 – Holubowski, Herman)
Em – 17 – 12 – 14 – 21 – 64
Wh – 12 – 6 – 10 – 7 – 35
JV – Em 62-54