The Whitehall Zephyrs and Emmaus Hornets batted, blocked, knocked, and stole last Friday night when physicality took command in the Hornets’ 46-35 victory over the Zephyrs.

“Like every night, I’ll never say these kids don’t compete really hard. They give this everything that they have,” said Whitehall coach Jeff Jones. “What I will say is [Emmaus] is a more physical team than we are, and the game needed to be officiated a certain way where those little bumps that sometimes are called need to be called, and they weren’t called tonight. And it was called that way both ways, and that’s what it is, but when we play a team like this, as physical as they play man-to-man, we need the game to be officiated a certain way and it wasn’t officiated that way tonight.”

After trailing 24-15 at halftime, the Zephyrs outscored Emmaus in the third quarter, 11-7, asserting full court pressure, which forced an early turnover, and Whitehall’s AJ Hines, who led his team with 10 points, converted two free throws shortly after. The two teams traded missed shots, and then Whitehall was called for an offensive foul with the score 26-21, Emmaus.

“Yeah, I think they were frustrated,” said Jones. “We felt like we were going to the basket pretty hard and weren’t getting those calls, and they went to the basket hard too and they were probably able to finish a little more than we were.”

Emmaus’s Brydon Crawford opened the fourth quarter with a three pointer, and Whitehall’s Luke Keppel drained a three with 4:18 left in the game, but the Hornets converted 10 of 12 free throws, and the Zephyrs converted four of eight in the final minutes.

“The Allen game, we had five guys in double figures which, I can’t tell you the last time that happened,” Jones said. “We’re a competitive team in this league. We’re 7-12, and we lost three games in overtime (Liberty, Pleasant Valley, William Allen) this year, so it’s a little frustrating when you think about what we could be, but that’s the way it is.”