There is an old coaching adage, “You can’t teach size.” The Emmaus Green Hornets took advantage of their superior height when they brought their boys varsity basketball team to Northampton on Friday night and left with a 60-48 win.

The Kids got off to a solid start using an active defense to combat Emmaus’ size advantage. Seven first quarter points by Isaac Harris had Northampton leading 12-10 as time ran down in the period. A late steal by Emmaus resulted in breakaway layup that tied the score just before the horn sounded.

Donte Rodriguez scored the first basket of the second quarter on his way to 9 points for the game. After that, Emmaus leaned on their 6’ 9” center, Zac Sabol, to control the paint on both ends of the floor. The Green Hornets went on a 16-4 run until Tyler Gilliard nailed a three-pointer from the left corner to beat the halftime buzzer and bring the deficit back to single digits at 28-21.

The Kids once again scored first when a new period started, but Emmaus took over and finished the quarter on a 15-5 run. Sabol seemed to block or alter almost every shot that occurred near the basket. This forced Northampton to rely on the three point shot. They struggled during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, going a total of 2 for 12 over that span.

Northampton did outscore Emmaus 20-17 in the final stanza. However, they were unable to bring the lead any lower than the 8-point margin that existed with 57 seconds left in the game.

Zac Gula led all Northampton scorers with 11 points.

Although the Kids dropped to 1-1 on the season, head coach Coy Stampone was pleased with the way his team played against such strong opposition.

“I love the way our kids played. They played hard. It’s only the second game of the season and hopefully we’ll just keep building from this.” “That’s a good team. They’re going to win a lot of games and hopefully we’re going to win some games too. You’ve got to shoot a little bit better, you have to be better on the foul line. Against a good team like Emmaus you have to clean that stuff up.”

Northampton’s next games are at Nazareth on Friday at 7 p.m. and a quick turnaround with a game at Pocono Mountain East at 3:00 on Saturday. Both teams feature explosive offenses that have scored over 80 points in each of their early season victories.

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The Kids beat Parkland 47-45 on Tuesday in a back-and-forth game.

NHS trailed after the first and third quarters but rallied to win.

Zac Gula and Donte Rodriguez led the way with 14 points each while Tyler Gilliard added 10, Spencer Cole 7 and Jared Soul two.