The Emmaus boys basketball team has been in its fair share of big games this season, including four match ups against the third-ranked team in the state in Parkland.

Saturday afternoon, just days after their fourth loss this season to Parkland, the Green Hornets (19-8) took on Pocono Mountain West with their season on the line in a District 11 third-place game. Facing a win-or-go-home situation, Emmaus came up with it’s most important win of the season.

Junior guard David Kachelries scored a game-high 31 points and helped lead his team to a 55-51 win over the Panthers to advance to the state tournament. The Hornets will face District 12 second-place team Martin Luther King at Lincoln High School Saturday in Philadelphia.

Kachelries scored 12 of his 31 points in the critical fourth quarter, and 12 of his team’s first 14 points that frame. He also went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line to help put away the Panthers.

“I knew I had to take over the game,” Kachelries said. “We just had to keep our composure on defense. We wanted to win really bad and get back to states after missing them last season. It’s going to be fun.”

But before the Green Hornets could celebrate going to the state tournament for the second time in the last three years, they had to prevent a comeback effort from a high-scoring Pocono Mountain West team that features two 1,000 point scorers, and three All-Eastern Pennsylvania Conference players. The Panthers had scored over 80 points in seven of their games this year.

Emmaus led 41-30 early in the fourth quarter and watched that advantage fall to 45-44 with 1:23 remaining.

The Hornets held forward Lance Singh, who was averaging 18.1 points per game, to just two points on 1-for-12 shooting from the field. The junior did not score in the second half.

But big men Travis Elmore and Jalen Vaughs combined to score 33 points and grab 20 rebounds, 11 of those on the offensive end.

The Green Hornets made enough stops, and converted from the charity stripe to secure the victory.

Junior guard Matt Kachelries added 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

“We didn’t want our experience with the seniors to end,” said Matt Kachelries. “We practiced hard the last three days [after the Parkland game Wednesday] and we tried to slow them down defensively. They were getting a lot of rebounds so we switched to a 2-3 zone and that definitely helped.”

Head coach Steve Yoder did not panic, and reminded his guys that they’ve been here before.

“I said good teams are going to rally like that,” said Yoder. “We just needed to be better down the stretch.”

And with the Kachelries brothers running with the ball in their hands, the Green Hornets were better than the Panthers down the stretch.