Emmaus ousts Pleasant Vy.

EMMAUS – Steve Yoder turned to his bench and smiled.

“Nervous energy,” the Emmaus head coach said to his team with a grin.

After an uneasy – and uneven – start, the Green Hornets had their coach beaming in the second half.

Emmaus overcame a sluggish start to finally put away Pleasant Valley 63-48 on Wednesday night to advance to the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinals.

“Excitement,” Yoder said of the energy to start the second half. “We’ve had a week-and-a-half off, we know it’s our last home game .. this is a special place for these kids. Everybody else hates coming here, and that makes us love it more. We have six seniors, so there was just a lot of nervous excitement, and nervous energy, and I think that showed in the way we defended.

“Fortunately, our bench stepped up in a big way. And then in the third quarter we kind of got back to what we do, and we put up 43 points in the second half.”

And the seventh seeded Hornets (13-10) needed almost every one of them.

After scoring just four points and racking up eight fouls in the opening period, it was Emmaus that looked out of sorts – and uncomfortable –on its home floor.

The Green Hornets were anything but in control with a 20-18 halftime lead.

“We’ve been bad all year in the first half,” said Yoder. “And we were again tonight.

“In the third quarter, we locked down defensively in a more disciplined way where we didn’t foul, and we went on a 12-0 run, and that kind of set the pace for the second half.”

That spurt helped Emmaus’ lead grow to 32-18 midway through the third period.

The 10th seeded Bears (11-12) answered, going on a 11-2 run over the next two minutes that cut the deficit to 34-29.

Pleasant Valley stayed within striking distance, trailing 50-41 with 4:10 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But Emmaus outscored the Bears 13-7 down the stretch — including seven straight points from Cameron Brooks that gave the Green Hornets a 59-43 lead with 1:30 left in the game.

“Our guys played hard. You can’t fault them for that,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Matt Gould. “A couple shots here and there, that if they would have fallen ... But we were in the game. It’s 20-18 at halftime.

“We miss a three at half, going into half, it’s in-and-out. And then we come down in the second half, and they go out on a 12-0 run. It hurts, but our guys fought, possession by possession. They tried to work back, they got it within five. Our guys fought.”

SCORING ... Isaiah Howard finished with a team-high 14 points for PV. DeShawn Scarboro added 12 points. Emmaus big man Zach Sabol (6-8) battled foul trouble in the first half but made his presence felt over the final two quarters with 11 points.

SOLID FOUNDATION … Pleasant Valley’s appearance in the district playoffs was its first since 2013, and the first since Gould took over. He’s hoping it’s something the program can build on. “That was definitely a goal of ours this year, to take that next step into districts. Being one of your goals, and reaching it, the kids see that, and moving forward, it’s not just you wanna make it anymore, you want to win a couple games,” said Gould.

UP NEXT … Emmaus will face No. 2 seed Easton Saturday.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Stivala 2-1-2-5, Howard 6-0-1-14, Harrison-Gaddist 4-1-2-9, Neubert 1-1-1-3, Scarboro 3-5-6-12, Rosario 1-0-0-2, Burks 0-1-2-1, Estrella 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 18-9-14-48.

EMMAUS

Artis 3-2-4-8, Smith 1-2-2-4, Diehl 6-2-3-14, Brooks 4-2-2-12, Swedberg 3-4-6-10, Bohman 0-0-0-0, Ferguson 0-0-0-0, Boyd 0-0-0-0, Riegel 0-1-2-1, Boyko 1-1-3-3, Sabol 5-1-1-11, Martelluci 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-15-23-63.

Pleasant Vy. 7 11 15 15 - 48

Emmaus 4 16 23 20 - 63

Three-pointers: Pleasant Valley – Howard 2, Scarboro 1. Emmaus – Brooks 2.