City of Basketball Love

Matt Chandik (@MChandik26)
--

READING — Matt Kachelries didn’t know if he’d ever be able to join Emmaus’ 1,000-point club. 

His brother, David Kachelries, was on the path to reach the mark early and never diverted from it, but Matt missed his sophomore campaign due to a knee injury. Because of that, there was uncertainty in his mind as to whether he’d make it. 

As it turns out, the wait just meant that it came in an even bigger moment. Kachelries stepped up to the line with 1:09 to play in Thursday’s PIAA Class 6A second-round game against Harrisburg and dropped in his first of two free throws to reach the mark. In the next minute, he added four more to help the Green Hornets ice a 64-61 win over Harrisburg at Reading’s Geigle Complex.

The win pushed Emmaus into the state quarterfinals for the first time in school history, where the Green Hornets will take on Carlisle, an 85-69 winner over Lincoln. 

“I think I did now that I was close to 1,000 when I got to the line,” Kachelries said. “It’s cool that I got it. It was a win-or-go-home game. I’m glad I got it in this game and we’re moving forward.”

“Obviously, we couldn’t be happier for him,” Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder said. “We love the kid to death - we love all of our players - but we were really rooting for Matty to do it. Once he got that out of the way, we focused on beating an outstanding Harrisburg team that’s really well-coached and has a long history of doing great things in the state tournament.”

Kachelries’ 1,000th point put the Green Hornets (22-6) up 60-58, and Emmaus never relinquished the lead. The Cougars (20-7) had their chances, but they went 1-for-4 at the line in that same stretch to provide the difference, and when they missed it, it was Kachelries there to snag the rebounds. 

“It feels awesome. We’re the first team to do this in our school history and hopefully, we can get to the next round,” Matt Kachelries said. “We knew we just had to pick up the defense like (the Cougars) were doing and we eventually did that and won the game by a couple points.”

The game briefly stopped after the free throw as Kachelries hugged Yoder and went to give the ball to his family in the stands. It was the second time this year that a Kachelries went through that ceremony after David did it in a win over Northampton last year. David was outstanding in his own right, pouring in 24 points to go with four assists, making it a night to remember for the brothers. 

“It’s amazing. We all knew when he was getting it - everyone was going crazy - and it’s really an honor for both of us to be on the 1,000-point banner at our school,” David Kachelries said. “We have a lot of pride in our team and we just don’t want our season to end right now. We want to keep playing and our goal is to make it to Hershey.”

Emmaus jumped all over Harrisburg, sprinting out to a 12-4 lead that ballooned to a 32-22 mark at the half. It helped that the Green Hornets shot 9-for-11 in the first quarter, as did the fact that the Cougars responded with a 6-for-21 performance. True to form, though, Harrisburg didn’t go away, and the Cougars got their first lead when Chris Whitaker hit a mid-range jumper to make it 52-50.

From there? Oh, just another five lead changes between the teams. Whitaker finished with 22 points, 18 of which came in the second half, but his last 3-point attempt was short and clanked off the rim and out to cement Harrisburg’s fate. 

Micah Parsons, considered to be a national top-five Class of 2018 football recruit and a Penn State defensive end commit, was another huge reason why the Cougars clawed their way back. The chiseled forward was simply too big and too strong for anyone to handle 1-on-1, and he barreled his way to 12 points and 18 rebounds. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough. 

“We were definitely looking for the down-low post game and to keep attacking the basket to try to get fouls,” Parsons said. “We just came together as team because we knew it could be our last game. Everything clicked in the second half, but unfortunately, we just missed some free throws and some layups that ended our season.”

Emmaus is all too happy to take advantage of that to stroll into uncharted territory.