They have had to do it all season, and last Saturday night at Freedom High School junior guards David and Matt Kachelries came up big to salvage the Emmaus boys basketball season.

The Kachelries brothers combined to score 38 of their team’s 48 points to help defeat Allen 48-43 in the District 11 4A quarterfinals.

“They’re both all-stars and they played like all-stars tonight,” said head coach Steve Yoder. “Good players play really well in big moments and I’m glad they are wearing the green and gold.”

It was the second time this season that the Hornets took down the Canaries. The first time was back on January 8 at Allen, 68-61. But this game had added motivation for the Green Hornets.

The Canaries beat the Hornets in the quarterfinal round of districts last year, ending Emmaus’ season. And after Parkland and Allen played to overtime a week earlier in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference final, some Lehigh Valley hoops fans wanted that rematch in the district semifinals.

“For me personally, I was highly-motivated by the fact that the Lehigh Valley wanted to see Allen vs Parkland again,” said Yoder, referring to the epic 82-74 EPC championship game between the two schools last Friday. “I thought it was a complete slight of our kids because they work just as hard as any kids in the Valley.

“I don’t really care what the Valley wants. I want what is best for my kids and what they deserve with this win is a fourth crack at Parkland.”

But the Green Hornets (18-7) spoiled the party with a gritty, hard-working victory that was won on both ends of the court.

The Emmaus defense, including a combination of Jacob Feiertag, Cam Widdoss and Matt Kachelries, held Talek Williams, an EPC first-team all-star, to just nine points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. Fellow junior Tyrese Martin had 10 of his team-high 18 points in the first quarter, hit two 3-pointers in giving his team a 16-13 advantage after the first quarter.

David Kachelries had seven of his game-high 23 in that opening quarter, and Matt Kachelries tallied six of his 15 in the second as the two teams went into the locker room all tied up at 25.

The second half is where the Emmaus’ offense found itself. The Hornets built up a 12-point lead late in the third quarter and into the beginning of the fourth. But just as they began to look ahead, Allen led a furious comeback, forcing three turnovers that led to easy baskets on a full-court press that cut the deficit to just one at 42-41 with under three minutes remaining.

“When we got that lead we just wanted to slow it down and work the ball around,” said Matt Kachelries. “Their pressure was hard to read at first, but then we made the right adjustments. We were rushing it a bit and the crowd got back into it, so once we slowed it down, we were fine.”

Matt Kachelries rebounded a missed shot and followed it up with a layup. Then David Kachelries took a pass from Joey Polczynski and drove the baseline for a layup that made it 46-42 with just 25 seconds left.

David then sank two free throws to put the game away and Emmaus could celebrate a hard-fought victory and advance to the semifinals to face Parkland for the fourth time this season. The game will be played Wednesday at 7:30 at Freedom.

“It seems like we are getting closer and closer every time we play them,” David Kachelries said. “We’ll have to get ready in practice and prepare for them. It’s going to be fun.”