The Whitehall basketball team had its hands full with Emmaus’ ability to score both inside and out, and that ultimately led to their downfall in an action-packed league game on Tuesday night.

In front of a packed crowd at Emmaus Gymnasium, the two teams were locked in a back and forth battle through three quarters. However, the Green Hornets were finally able to pull away, utilizing the outside scoring of the Kachelries twins along with the inside post play of Zach Sabol. Those three players combined for 67 points as the Green Hornets defeated the Zephyrs 77-61.

It was the first league loss for the Zephs who fall to 8-2 on the season.

After the game, head coach Jeff Jones made sure he put the game in perspective. It was something he discussed with the team before and after the game.

“If we won tonight, we didn’t win a championship, and if we lost tonight we didn’t lose a championship,” said Jones. “This was just a game in the league.”

He said it gives them a feel for where they’re at, and he feels they’re really competitive with one of the better teams in the league.

“The message tonight was positive,” said Jones. “We’re taking away positives tonight.”

Winning seemed within their grasp as they played efficiently throughout the first half as Mikey Esquilin was an assist machine, dropping dimes to Devin Martinez, Logan McGinley and Kasai Harrison in three consecutive trips down the floor in the opening quarter as the Zephs built a five-point lead with just a few minutes remaining in the period.

Esquilin continued to press the action in the second, with Martinez becoming his favorite target. Martinez was a bull underneath the basket, putting up points in traffic to go along with some jumpers to tally 12 points before the break.

But both David and Matt Kachelries began to find their stroke in the second half, hitting from beyond the arc as well as on a couple of run outs as Emmaus started to create some separation heading into the final period.

Matt Kachelries hit three treys that helped turn the tide in favor of the Hornets. The first came with 3: 12 left in the third period, giving the Hornets the 43-42 lead. The second trey came a bit later, reclaiming their lead after Kayden Walschburger answered with a three of his own to give the Zephs the advantage once again, 45-43. But after brother David scored a layup, and Bryce Diehl scored on a steal, Matt lit it up again from beyond to push the Hornets lead to eight. They were now leading 53-45 with a little over a minute left in the third.

That bounce helped them fend off Whitehall in the final stanza as they built on that lead with the help of Sabol who finished with 20 points.

Jones knew that there would be runs during the game. and Emmaus just had a few more than they did.

“I thought we played really well; that’s an exceptional team,” said Jones. “They have an inside presence with Sabol and two of the best guards in the league. So they had an outside game going with five threes, and then an inside game.”

The Zephs were executing well in the half court in the first half with Esquilin delivering the ball to the post for some easy layups. They got away from that in the second half as they were shooting more from beyond the arc.

Additionally, Jones said that they ran a couple more half court sets in the first half than they did in the second half. That decision was dictated by Emmaus’ runs.

“When teams go on runs, sometimes you have to settle yourself down and slow down and run an offensive set rather than just push the ball up in transition,” said Jones.

Esquilin had a great floor game for the Zephs, scoring 14 points to go along with those assists. Both McGinley and Martinez each finished with 14 as well, while Jackson Buskirk netted six and Walschburger added five.

The Zephyrs get back at it this Friday against Freedom.