Words exchanged, technicals handed out in Emmaus win
Darville scores careerhigh 28 points; Pocono coach accuses Hornets of taking ‘cheap shots’
If Emmaus and Pocono Mountain West meet in next month’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference boys basketball tournament, you may want to get a ticket.
And if you’re an EPC official, you might want to get a few extra security officers.
Things got more than a little testy during the battle between the Green Hornets and Panthers on Friday night at Emmaus High’s cozy gym that puts a lot of fans in close proximity to the court.
Five technicals were assessed on individual players during the game, four against Emmaus. There was at least one unpleasant exchange between the coaches during the game. One Pocono Mountain West fan was ejected and an Emmaus student fan was also shown the door.
Another Panthers fan was restrained by the West coaching staff after taking a few steps onto the floor as some pushing and shoving among players began across the way.
Thankfully, from a safety standpoint, there were no altercations after the Green Hornets posted a 72-60 victory to reach the midpoint of their season at 9-2.
The only postgame fireworks came from Pocono Mountain West coach Rich Williams who didn’t hold back in criticizing the Emmaus style of play.
“It’s hard to win when all the other team does is take cheap shots during the game,” Williams said. “You’re not going to win many games that way because for every technical they got, it basically got offset because they flopped or we got called for an intentional foul or something like that. It was disappointing to watch a team that’s coached like that. I don’t feel that’s the way basketball is supposed to be played.
“I feel like that’s taught and tolerated,” Williams continued. “We teach our kids to play with class and respect. We don’t walk around getting technical fouls every two seconds or take cheap shots. Hats off to them for winning the game, but I am not really in the mood to give a whole lot of credit to a team that has to do that in order to control a game. That’s my opinion.”
Emmaus coach Steve Yoder initially didn’t want to respond to Williams but said he has been coaching for 15 years and people know his program.
“We coach our kids up the right way and help them become good people and teach them to play hard,” he said. “They played hard tonight and it was a physical game. The refs had a hard time controlling it, and I’m sorry it got that way because I’d rather talk about about how well our kids played.”
Yoder also noted that Williams received a technical foul earlier this season against Whitehall.
“There seems to be a tremendous amount of irony with someone who leads the league in technicals judging others,” Yoder said. “His reputation is well established in regard to that kind of behavior.”
The contentious tone was actually set during a hard-fought JV game that also featured technical fouls and ended with a 45-44 Emmaus win at the buzzer on a 3-pointer by Rafael Terrero. The Green Hornets celebrated the win with great exuberance and the heightened emotions carried into the varsity game.
“Most people who come here to enjoy a basketball game know that when this place fills up, it’s a great environment for a high school basketball game and they got that tonight,” he said. “Unfortunately, you’ve got a lot of talk tonight about other things instead of the boys’ play.”
Yoder was proud of his team, which got off to a great start and opened a 25-9 lead after one quarter and still led 36-21 at halftime.
After four technical fouls were called in the first two minutes of the third quarter, West went on a run and got within 46-43 late in the third period.
However, Dylan Darville answered with a layup that led to a three-point play at the other end and Emmaus was able to rebuild the lead to 51-43 after three periods.
Darville, recently selected as an all-state football player, finished with a career-high 28 points, 18 coming in the second half when West made its charge.
“It was fun,” Darville said. “They play intense and they play physical and that’s the kind of basketball we like to play. They’re a good team, they’re physical, but that’s the kind of basketball I’ve grown up playing.”
Will Barber had 10 points in the first half and was held scoreless in the third period before coming back to hit a big 3-pointer that made it 64-54 with 3:25 left. Pocono West wouldn’t get the deficit back to single digits the rest of the way.
Barber finished with 18 as Emmaus remained the only team in the EPC not to lose a league game.
“We shot like 80% in the first quarter [10-for-14], but it really starts defensively,” Barber said. “We were able to hold them to one-and-done and we were able to get the ball out on the break to Will and Dylan and got some easy baskets. The game plan in the first quarter was really solid, but I knew they wouldn’t go away and they didn’t. It became a slugfest the rest of the way and we came out on top.”
As for Darville, Yoder said that he’s an unbelievable athlete and an even better kid.
“He’s a great kid, a wonderful kid to be around, but they all are,” Yoder said. “I needed every bit of them tonight. Will Barber has been huge for us throughout the year and Dylan brought it and Jamo [Jametric Harris] had a great second half after getting in foul trouble in the first half. You don’t beat West without good guard play and we got that tonight.”
Asked if it was one of his best wins of the season, Yoder said it was because it gave his team the tiebreaker over West should they tie in the standings for playoff seeding.
“It keeps us undefeated in the conference, so from that perspective, it’s probably as big a win as we’ve had in the first half of the season,” he said.
Williams wanted to make sure he wasn’t construed as criticizing the officiating crew of Jack Keiter, Greg Haas, and Jim Gross.
“I want to make it clear I am not taking a shot at them,” he said. “They did nothing wrong. They did what they were supposed to do throughout the game. You look at it and one time something happens, it might be an accident. The second time, it’s maybe a boo-boo. But by the fourth time it’s something that’s taught and tolerated. I’m proud to say whether we won or lost tonight, my guys don’t play like that.”