It wasn’t the game that the Emmaus boys basketball team had hoped to be playing in. But after falling to Pocono Mountain West in a semifinal game last Wednesday at the PPL Center, the Green Hornets found themselves in the District 11 Class 6A third-place game against another team that did not expect to be there.

Top seed and Eastern Pennsylvania Conference champion Allen was upset by Parkland in Wednesday’s semifinals.

Emmaus came up short against the Canaries Saturday afternoon at Easton Area Middle School, falling 83-77.

“It was a typical Emmaus-Allen matchup,” said Hornet head coach Steve Yoder. “It was two heavyweight teams going at it. In my opinion, two of the better teams in the area and state. Both teams played their best and played their hearts out. It didn’t matter the circumstances, we both wanted to win this game. I thought the difference was their role players and the energy that some of their guys off the bench gave them.”

Emmaus moves on to the state tournament as the fourth-place team out of District 11 and will take on the fourth place team out of District 1, Cheltenham, this Saturday at Council Rock South High School in Holland.

Allen (26-2 overall) had four players score in double-figures in the third-place game. Two of those players had season-highs in JJ Winslow (24 points) and Ramel Johnson (16).

Winslow gave Emmaus fits all night. While the Hornets contained the Canaries stars (Talek Williams had 18 points and Tyrese Martin added 22), Winslow connected from long distance five times, including three 3-pointers in the first quarter. Hoever, the Canaries led by only one after the first eight-minute frame.

“They hit a lot of 3-point shots, which was a big factor for them,” Yoder said. “Winslow really hurt us with his shooting today.”

It was back-and-forth for most of the first three quarters.

The Hornets’ David Kachelries, who had a game-high 37 points, also had five 3-pointers. The senior connected on three of them in the second quarter to help pace Emmaus (20-6 overall). He had 13 in that quarter, but Allen was still leading 36-34 at halftime, and took a 62-58 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Allen began to take over from there. The Canaries went on a 12-2 run to start the frame, and opened up their largest lead of the game, 74-60, midway through.

The Green Hornets got it to within six at 81-75 with under 30 seconds left, but Johnson connected for two free-throws to put the game away.

“I thought to start the fourth quarter, we went a little bit cold from the field,” said Yoder. “Part of that had to do with them picking up their defensive intensity, because all of a sudden you look up and we’re down 10 when it was close all game. We battled back to where it was only a possession or two game toward the end, but credit them for making some big free throws. I’m proud of the boys and I’m really excited for what states could bring.”

Matt Kachelries finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, and Zach Sabol had 12 points, 16 rebounds, and six assists.