Despite a big night from one of Emmaus seniors, Bethlehem Catholic took Saturday’s East Penn Conference title game behind the effort of it’s own senior in Justin Paz.

The Golden Hawks’ Justin Paz hit the game-winning shot for the second straight game. His buzzer beater against the Hornets came after he drove the length of the court with less than 10 seconds to go and converted a layup to give the Golden Hawks a 46-44 win in the league final last Saturday night at Easton Area Middle School.

Paz’s game-winner overshadowed a big night from Emmaus’ Ethan Parvel, who scored a team-high 16 points for Emmaus just two days after a 16-point effort in the league semifinal win over Pocono Mountain West.

Parvel scored five points in the final 46 seconds Saturday, including the game-tying shot with 10 seconds remaining.

Kyle Young wasted no time getting the inbound pass into Paz, who sped down the court, wove through defenders and banked in the winning shot with his right hand.

Following a time out by head coach Steve Yoder, the Green Hornets’ half-court heave fell well short and Becahi (22-3) celebrated its second consecutive conference title.

“You had two pretty evenly-matched teams,” Yoder said. “I don’t think a lot of people are surprised it came down to who had the ball last. I just wish I could’ve done a little better job for them. They played until the buzzer sounded. Just fell a little short.”

Paz scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the second half as Emmaus (20-5 overall) did a good job of controlling the East Stroudsburg University commit and limiting his scoring over the course of the first 16 minutes.

Whether it was jitters or just bad luck, both teams started slow from the field. Emmaus was 0 for its first 9 from the floor and was held to just eight points in the first quarter. But on the other side, Becahi netted nine points in the first stanza and just six in the second quarter as Emmaus held a 19-15 lead at halftime.

“I thought that we did a good job defensively in the first half,” said senior Zach Sabol, who finished with 15 points for Emmaus. “We were having trouble scoring, but still played hard on defense.”

Leading through all of the second quarter, the Green Hornets could not hold the Golden Hawks back any longer as they outscored Emmaus 19-10 to take back the lead and hold it for the remainder of the game.

The Hornets were down 42-36 with 1:55 remaining, but a couple of missed free-throws and some timely Parvel shots allowed Emmaus to claw back. Down by two with under 30 seconds left, Parvel hit a 20-foot jump shot to tie the game.

Paz took the inbounds right away and raced down court without hesitation and laid it in with 2.5 seconds to go.

“He’s a great player and made a great play,” Sabol said. “Credit to them, but we played well too. It was a good game with two great teams. It’s tough to lose it, but we’ll be back and ready to go in districts.”

Emmaus has a week off before opening up the District 11 Class 6A tournament Saturday in the quarterfinals at Allen against the winner of the eighth seed Liberty vs. ninth-seeded Pocono Mountain West game, which was slated for Tuesday evening.