For the third consecutive year, the Emmaus High School boys basketball team is under new leadership during the summer offseason competition.

Eric Luckenbill spent the last two seasons at Kutztown High School, but had coached for over a decade in the Emmaus program before heading to Berks County.

He knows the group well and is excited for the opportunity to lead the program.

“Our summer has been going very well,” Luckenbill said. “Our turnout has been great. The attitude of the boys has been great. They’re committed. They play hard. Our biggest challenge right now is that we only have one or two kids who played varsity basketball this past year.

“We have four seniors, who this past season as juniors played JV basketball. And we only have two who were sophomores, Jake Ross and Matt Rooney, who played legitimate varsity minutes. So, we really are starting over and just about everybody is playing summer varsity basketball for the first time.”

The Hornets competed in the Cedar Beach Bash Showcase Tournament last weekend at Whitehall High School. They opened with a win over Easton, 47-46, on Thursday night. That came just two nights after their last meeting, where the Red Rovers won 57-27 in a summer league game.

Lucas Stephan led the way for Emmaus with 12 points in the tournament game.

“We were up nine in the fourth quarter, and then Matt Rooney, one of our best players, fouled out, and it became a tight game,” Luckenbill said. “It was really great for us to learn press breaks and what to do with the ball when you’re up five with two minutes to go. Learning to deal with those situations is only going to help us when the games really matter next winter.

“That’s what summer has been about, learning to trust each other and getting down those basketball IQ things in a varsity setting.”

On Saturday afternoon, Emmaus won its second in a row, defeating Bangor 59-26 behind 16 points from Javian Porter. The Hornets finished the day a 46-41 victory over Parkland to start off 3-0. Rooney tallied a game-high 13 points in the win over the Trojans, the last unbeaten team left in the Lehigh Valley Summer League Big School Division play.

But Sunday wasn’t as kind as the other two days as Emmaus lost twice in a row, falling to Wilson West Lawn 59-35 and then dropping the rematch with the Trojans, 57-27.

Those two teams met in the final with the Trojans winning the championship, 63-52. They are also two of the top teams in the summer league’s Big School Division.

Emmaus enters this week at 4-6 overall in the Lehigh Valley summer league standings and will look to keep its positive momentum from the weekend going.