A lot of teams would have panicked in the situation Emmaus faced late in Saturday’s PIAA Class 6A boys basketball game against Cheltenham.

After leading the entire game except for the final minute of the first half, Emmaus fell behind late in the third quarter and was looking at a 58-50 deficit with just under five minutes left in the game.

That’s when Hornet assistant coach Eric Farkas suggest to head coach Steve Yoder that they ‘unleash’ the Kachelries twins.

It’s something they did in a district playoff game against Pocono Mountain West and the team climbed back in the game.

This time, it resulted in a win as the Hornets came back to beat the Panthers 68-67 and move on to face Harrisburg in Wednesday’s second round.

“I think we’re as battle-tested as any team around,” said Yoder. “Having the twins playing for four years of varsity, we’ve played everywhere. We’ve played in state, out of state, big venue, small venue. We’re battle tested and the kids didn’t shy away from the challenge of being down eight points with a couple minutes left. It was pretty special to watch.”

Unleashing the twins means allowing seniors David and Matt Kachelries more freedom on the court to gamble and use their instincts.

“Full-court man and let them get nuts,” said Yoder when asked what unleashing the twins means. “Let them double when they feel like doubling. Let them push the ball and make those special passes they make. They look for each other in transition like no one can believe. We love to do it, but you can’t do it for 32 minutes. You have to pick your spots to do it.”

Emmaus (21-6) had led by as much as 10 points in the second quarter, but the Panthers (19-8) tied the game at 33-33 just before halftime. The Hornets built up a 6-point lead midway through the third quarter before Cheltenham closed the gap and then went on a 8-0 run to end the quarter and take a 48-45 lead.

The Panther stretched that advantage to 58-50 with 4:47 left in the game. That’s about when Farkas suggested going all out, although Yoder thought there was still too much time on the clock.

“He said ‘coach, it’s time,’” Yoder said of Farkas’ suggestion. “So you have to give coach Farkas credit. That kind of got it back to where we wanted to and I thought our experience down the stretch was the difference.”

A basket by Zach Sabol and a three-pointer from Daryn Lewis go the Hornets within three with 3:49 left. Emmaus took the lead back on a David Kachelries three-pointer, 61-59 with 2:38 left.

The Panthers, which had fouled out three starters in the fourth quarter, battled back and had a 63-62 lead before David Kachelries’ three-point play with 59 second remaining put his team ahead for good.

Then with six seconds left and Cheltenham still looking for a shot to win or tie the game, David Kachelries made a defensive play that sealed the win when he ran to double team the Panthers’ Jack Clark, who was being guarded by Matt Kachelries.

David tied up Clark and the refs called for a jump ball with the possession arrow in Emmaus favor. Kachelries made a pair of free throws with four seconds left to put his team ahead 68-64.

“That was huge,” said Sabol, who scored 16 points while pulling down 11 rebounds. “David made a great hustle play there and ended up making two free throws, which was clutch for us.”

Cheltenham made a three-pointer at the buzzer to bring the final score to just a one-point margin.

Matt Kachelries scored a game-high 24 points while dishing out five assists and pulling down seven rebounds and blocking a shot. He’s now at 990 career points. A smile came across his face when asked what it means when his coaches “unleash the twins.”

“He just tells us to go out and full-court press, go after every ball, get as many steals and we can and score in transition,” said Matt Kachelries.

David Kachelries scored 19 points in the game.