The wait is over
Emmaus star Barber hits milestone 1,000-point mark in win
Will Barber took care of his business quickly Wednesday night.
His Emmaus boys basketball team took a little longer to get its job done at Bethlehem Catholic.
Barber, a Saint Joseph’s lacrosse commit, entered the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game needing just four points to get to 1,000 in his Green Hornets career. He took care of that with a short turnaround jumper in the lane off a Jack Csensits pass just 2:41 into the game. It was Becahi 8, Barber 4 at the time.
Emmaus trailed most of the first quarter but gradually pulled away to a 52-40 victory over the pesky Golden Hawks on a special night for Barber and the Green Hornets program. Barber finished with 25 points, all without a 3-pointer, as Emmaus improved to 10-3 overall, 7-2 EPC. He made 9 of 11 foul shots to go along with eight field goals on 13 shots. He also collected eight rebounds.
“I made my first two shots and I kind of got it over with quick,” Barber said of getting to the milestone without prolonging the wait. “It’s great for the community of Emmaus and my teammates, coaches and family. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Emmaus hadn’t played since a loss at Parkland on Jan. 8. Barber was set to reach the milestone at home against Pocono Mountain East last Friday, but the game was postponed for reasons never made clear. Speculation is that it had to do with President Joe Biden’s visit to the borough earlier in the day.
And then a weather-related postponement of the Becahi game on Tuesday made Barber wait an additional 24 hours.
“It was kind of lingering, so it felt good to do it today,” Barber said. “I am really happy. But now we have to move forward and get on with our season. It’s a special feeling and I am glad my friends came out to support me all the way from Emmaus.”
The game was stopped for a few minutes. Barber got a standing ovation from the Emmaus fans in the Bethlehem Catholic gym and made a quick trip into the stands
to present the game ball to his family.
“I’m really proud of him,” Green Hornets coach Steve Yoder said. “He’s out there and he scores his 1,000th and I am thinking about where the program was and where it is now. Will was a big part of kind of bringing us out of a couple rough years that we had. He kind of put the program on his back along with a couple of other players. He deserves a lot of credit. Now we’re 10-3 and it’s a good place to be.”
Emmaus needed Barber to help get that 10th win. He scored 13 in the first quarter and had 17 at halftime.
The Green Hornets led only 27-23 late in the second quarter, but got a 3-pointer from Csensits and a rebound basket by Jack Curley-Katrishen to open a nine-point lead at intermission.
Junior Owen Hafner gave the team a lift with 10 points in the first half. He had scored just 10 points all season coming in. “That was probably my best half of the season so far,” Hafner said. “I felt like that spark helped us get the lead and we didn’t look back from there.”
Becahi was still hanging around at 36-32 late in the third quarter but Emmaus put the game away with a 7-2 run to close the period capped by Barber’s putback at the buzzer.
“We’re trying to get some people on the bench to step up and give us some bigger minutes,” Yoder said. “Owen Hafner was great tonight.”
After playing 10 games over the season’s first 21 days, Emmaus was playing for just the third time since Dec. 21.
“This was only our third game in 25 days and it took us a couple of minutes to get up to game speed,” Yoder said. “We got there by the end of the first quarter and the second quarter was really great. But [Becahi] Coach [Scott] McClary is one of the best coaches in the Lehigh Valley and I knew he’d have his kids prepared tonight and they were. They played hard, but we executed at a high level, especially on the defensive end in holding them to 40 points on their home floor.”
Becahi was held to 40 points or less for the eighth time in falling to 3-12 overall, 2-8 EPC. Jackson Wickenhieser and Josh Benka-Coker led the Golden Hawks with eight points apiece.