Head coach Steve Yoder knew it was going to be a tough game, but he didn’t want to make any excuses.

Nazareth was playing in front of its home crowd and seeking revenge after a 49-45 loss to Emmaus back in December that knocked the Blue Eagles from the ranks of the unbeaten.

A 50-point second half surge helped lead Nazareth past Emmaus (14-4 overall, 9-3 EPC) 73-65 last Friday evening at Nazareth Area High School.

“We knew coming in that they were going to be up for it,” Yoder said. “But we had to be better prepared and ready knowing that we were going to have to play hard for all 32 minutes. I told them before the game that good teams don’t look at what’s going against them. They just go out and take care of business.”

For the first 16 minutes, the Green Hornets followed their coach’s advice.

Emmaus scored the first nine points of the game before Nazareth (10-8 overall, 5-7 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference) called timeout. The Eagles did not score their first basket until midway through the quarter.

Senior Joey Polczynski and junior David Kachelries fueled the Green Hornets offense, especially in the first half, where they led by as much as 16 midway through the second quarter.

“I thought in the first half we were very business-like and had a great work ethic,” Yoder said. “I thought our effort was there. We played hard. But when bullets started flying, our execution fell apart.”

Leading 32-23 at halftime, and seemingly getting whatever they wanted to on the offensive end, the Green Hornets looked to be in good shape to come out with a league victory.

But that is when Jahan Dotson took over for Nazareth. The sophomore guard, who had a quiet first half, scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half, and became a matchup problem for Emmaus.

“Well we know what kind of athlete he is,” Yoder stated on Dotson. “Matt [Kachelries] had his hands full. But it’s not just him, we had to do a better job with our help defense.

“We were really bad defensively in the second half. We allowed middle penetration to the basket. Our help defense wasn’t good. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. It was pretty much off all the way around. You can’t let a team at home, who is desperate for a win, have that kind of momentum. It was a missed opportunity for us.”

Blue Eagle big man Matt Horvath tallied 13 points and was big underneath for Nazareth, grabbing offensive rebounds and getting easy put backs.

Polczynski and David Kachelries each had 25 points. Matt Kachelries added 10.

After playing three games in four days last week, Emmaus is back to a normal schedule this week. The Hornets faced Northampton on Tuesday night (after Press deadline) and Central Catholic on Friday this week.