In a game that featured both teams struggling from the field, there was one player that noticeably was in rhythm. Unfortunately for Emmaus, he was on the opposing team.

Allen’s 6-foot-6 senior forward Tyrese Martin went 12-for-18 from the field, including 6-for-8 from behind the three-point line, in scoring 37 points and grabbing 17 rebounds, leading his top-ranked and undefeated Canaries (8-0) to a 62-46 victory in the Allen Holiday Basketball Tournament championship game last Wednesday night at Sewards Gym.

“When you have that size and you can shoot, run the point and post up, and have range, that’s a scary combination,” said Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder. “He’s going to do that to a lot of teams this year. We gave up 62 points and he had 37 of them. That’s not the worst effort in the world when you have a guy go off like that. It was hard to slow him down. He’s the best player we’ve seen so far this year.”

While the game, played in front a large crowd, was a nonleague contest, it was also a rematch of a District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal from last season, which was won by the Green Hornets. This time around, however, Allen was up for revenge.

“It was fun for me,” Yoder said of the atmosphere. “I sat most of the game because even if I stood up the kids couldn’t hear me. There were a lot of great players out there, and it was fun to see the kids battle. I even said to them that I know they’re upset, but Allen is a great team, and it just wasn’t our night. We’d love the opportunity to see them again.”

The teams are not scheduled to meet during the regular season, but they could surely meet in the playoffs next month, possibly more than once.

With last week’s game being the championship tilt in Allen’s four-team holiday tournament, neither team had time to game plan as both teams played and won the night before to force the match up.

Even though Martin was a known commodity heading into the game, Emmaus (6-1) struggled to stop him.

“We started off in man-to-man coverage, but he was beating a couple different players we had on him,” said Yoder. “So then we switched to a 1-3-1 zone, and he started hitting 3-pointers. It was just a tough matchup for us with the short amount of time we had to prepare.”

Martin opened up the scoring with a long range effort just 20 seconds into the game, and added eight more as the Canaries led 19-9 after the first quarter.

The Hornets fought back in the second. David and Matt Kachelries combined to score 12 of the 15 Emmaus points that quarter, including a 3-pointer by David as the horn went off. They trailed by just two at halftime, 26-24.

Martin stayed hot, drilling three 3-pointers in the third quarter, while Emmaus stayed cold. The Hornets didn’t score in the fourth quarter until Zach Sabol connected on a jumper with 4:39 left.

“Our defense wasn’t bad at all tonight, but you have to be able to score at the other end,” Yoder said. “We didn’t shoot the way we have all year. Allen defended well and made it difficult for us. It just wasn’t our night.”

Martin went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final quarter to seal the victory.

Next up for Emmaus is a stretch of three games in four days beginning with an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game against Whitehall Tuesday (after Press deadline), followed by a nonleague game against Quakertown the next night. They finish the week with a trip to Dieruff Friday.