For as dominant as Emmaus has looked this season, winning by an average margin of almost 26 points per game, there have been a few times where the team has not played its best basketball and have trailed by big margins.
In their first meeting on the road against archrival Parkland, the Hornets found themselves down by nine points and were able to use a big second half and rally for a 42-36 victory.
Last night, when the two teams met again in Emmaus’ final home game of the regular-season, head coach Avon Mack’s squad was faced with another big deficit trailing by as much as 10 points.
And again, the Hornets were able to respond and come away victorious.
That’s what good teams do, find ways to win. And Emmaus did just that as they rallied for a thrilling 53-49 victory over the Trojans in an electric atmosphere at ‘The Hive’ before a near-capacity crowd.
“Resiliency, that’s all you can say,” said Mack, the Hornets first year coach following the game. “No. 4 (Gabby DeVita) went down early with two fouls, Cassie (Doemling) had two and it forced them to sit. It also forced our rotations, but it says a lot about our girls with the mentality of next person up.”
The one player that was able to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the court while putting her team on her back led Emmaus to the regular season sweep of the Trojans after Parkland won all four meetings a year ago.
Behind a stellar second half effort from sophomore Kayla Snyder, who scored 14 of her game-high 18 points after halftime, the Hornets won their 17th straight game improving to 15-0 in the league and 20-1 overall while also securing the top overall seed for the upcoming playoffs.
“This was such a big victory, especially from being down early and picking up our energy and really the intensity on both offense and defense,” said Snyder following the game on the LIVE broadcast on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network.
“[At halftime] we were super calm in the locker room. Coach didn’t yell, he just told us we needed to play better, pick up the energy and our level of play because we turned the ball over too many times, and we missed a bunch of layups.”
Uncharacteristically, Emmaus had 10 turnovers in the first half and gave up 27 points (they allow 32 ppg game). Despite that, they still only trailed by just six at the break.
That’s when Snyder decided to take over the game, which was no surprise to her coach.
“She’ll doing anything that’s needed to get the win for her teammates,” said Mack about Snyder, one of the league’s top guards. “In the last few games, she hasn’t been a scorer. She’s been more of a facilitator but today she looked to score and that’s what she did.”
Junior Gabby DeVita added 10 points in the win, while senior Sylvia Sokolofski added nine for the Hornets outscored the Trojans 32-22 in the second half.
Parkland, which had entered the game on a three-game win streak, was paced by junior Isabella Hallal who had a team-high 17 points. Classmate Aneri McGalla added 16 and senior Delaney Chicote 13 for the Trojans who dropped to 12-3 in the EPC and 14-7 overall.
Both teams were outstanding from the free-throw line with Parkland converting at a 82 percent clip (14 of 17), while Emmaus was at 74 percent (17 of 23). The Hornets were 8 of 12 in the fourth quarter with Snyder leading the way, going 5 of 6 down the stretch.
Emmaus will look to complete an undefeated regular season in the EPC on Monday as they travel to Whitehall. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
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Emmaus 53, Parkland 49
Park – Delaney Chilcote 4 4-4 13, Isabella Hallal 5 7-9 17, Addison Fritzinger 0, Aneri McGalla 6 3-4 16, Sarah Car 0. Subs: Mogan Volpe 1 0-0 3, Carly Spang 0, Arielle Brown 0, Hailey Hudson 0, Savannah Gonzalez 0. Totals: FG 16, FT 14-17, 3s (3 – Volpe, Chilcote, McGalla)
Em – Kayla Snyder 5 8-9 18, Gabby DeVita 2 5-6 10, Sylvia Sokolofski 3 1-2 7, Sofie Laird 1 3-4 5, Cassie Doemling 2 0-0 4. Subs: Olive Whitney 2 0-2 5, Emma Naccarato 2 0-0 4, Sierra Stevens 0. Totals: FG 17, FT 17-23, 3s (2 – Whitney, DeVita)
Park – 13-14-6-16- 49
Em – 9-12-11-21 – 53