It has been an up-and-down season for the Emmaus High School boys basketball team. Through exciting wins, tough losses and even a pause in competition due to COVID protocols, the Green Hornets have had to deal with a lot this season.

“We’re just happy to be able to play games this year with everything going on,” said Hornet head coach Steve Yoder. “At the beginning of the season we weren’t even sure if we’d get one game in, let alone 10. It’s good for the kids to have at least some semblance of a season no matter the wins and losses record.”

Playing without one of its top scorers and main offensive threat in senior leader Danny Bohman, Emmaus turned to some youth and inexperienced varsity players in its latest game. The Green Hornets played hard until the final whistle on the road, but fell to rival Parkland, 51-36, Monday afternoon at Parkland High School in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game that was moved up to 2 p.m. because of impending weather.

“We have some problems offensively that we really need to clean up,” Yoder said. “I thought defensively our game looked really good at times. We only gave up 26 points at halftime, which is a good effort on their home floor, but unfortunately for us, we’re having trouble putting the ball in the hoop right now.”

In a low-scoring first quarter, the Trojans led 11-9 at the buzzer, and then held a 26-14 advantage at halftime. They took over the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Green Hornets 19-7 in the frame.

Junior Jadis Brevitt was a bright spot on the both ends of the floor for Emmaus. He finished with six points, three steals and two assists.

“I thought he has a really good engine and plays with a lot of energy, which is good,” said Yoder. “He gets to the rim so easily, just needs to finish a little better. Today he just had some really tall guys waiting for him at the rim. We’re really high on him though. He’s coachable and liked by his teammates.”

Senior Patrick Tulio had five points, three rebounds and two blocks, and classmate Jameel Sanders finished with four points. Fellow senior Shep Henseler tallied three points, three rebounds, two steals, one block and one assist.

Underclassmen in Will Barber, Jacob Fotta and Brydon Crawford received valuable varsity minutes, and took advantage of the playing time. Barber and Crawford each contributed four points.

“They played until the end so I can’t be mad about that,” Yoder said. “We were able to play some younger guys more. Will Barber is just a freshman and he’s been gradually getting more minutes. [Sophomore] Jake Fotta is another young guy we like, but we’ve decided to keep them down more on JV to get more playing time with the weird type of season this is.

“I think these younger guys will push our older guys over the next few weeks at practice and will make us better for districts coming up.”

Emmaus has one other game to finish out the regular season, at home against Salisbury this week. The District 11 Class 6A tournament will start the first week of March.