Coming out of halftime of last week’s East Penn Conference boys basketball title game, Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder asked his staff what adjustments they thought Parkland might make in the second half. It turned out that the end result was less about adjustments and more about intensity.

The Trojans trailed 23-21 at halftime, but moved into the lead less than four minutes into the period and pulled away over the remaining 16 minutes to come away with a 59-45 win last Thursday night at the PPL Center.

“On the way out after halftime I said to the staff ‘what should we expect as far as adjustments,’” said Yoder. “We thought they’d probably try to get Zaire [Smaltz] going a little bit, and they did. All of us in the locker room kind of owned that we thought they raised their level and we just didn’t raise it enough. We have to own that and we’ll learn from it and move on.”

Emmaus held league MVP Nick Coval somewhat in check, limiting him to just three baskets in the game. He scored 18 points with 11 of them coming at the foul line as the Hornets’ Jack Csensits did his best to lock down the Davidson-bound guard.

Trojan senior Jayden Thomas picked up the slack, earning the league tournament MVP with a 30-point performance in the title game, including 17 points in a fourth quarter that saw Parkland turn a six-point lead into a 14-point win.

“He was absolutely fantastic,” said Yoder. “When we had to extend our pressure he went by us, finished, made his free throws. He was really great tonight. He carried them to the chip in a lot of ways, especially with Coval not having his typical night. Thomas stepped up.”

Emmaus had six different players score in the first half with Jametric Harris leading the way with eight of his team-high 18 points coming in the first half.

The Hornets even extended their halftime lead to four points when Will Barber scored to open the third quarter.

But Parkland didn’t take long to answer.

Smaltz made a pair of baskets to tie the game at 25-25. Then Thomas took over, making a three-pointer that gave his team the lead and then converting a three-point play to extend it to 31-27 with 4:23 left in the third quarter.

With Parkland’s lead at 39-33 after three quarters, Thomas scored his team’s first 12 points of the fourth quarter and had 17 of his team’s 20 fourth-quarter points, with three free throws from Coval making up the rest of the total.

“Obviously we felt really good about things going into the locker room at halftime,” said Yoder. “In the third quarter we didn’t match their intensity and they picked it up. At that point you have to do things that you’re not always comfortable doing. We had to extend our pressure and I thought we were rushing our shots.

“Really the credit goes to them. They executed better than us in the third quarter and I think that was the difference in the game.”

Emmaus (19-5) moves on to the District 11 tournament at the No. 2 seed with Parkland (20-5) earning the top seed. The Hornets will have off until Wednesday, Feb. 28 when they play in a semifinal against the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal game between No. 3 Liberty (18-6) and No. 6 Nazareth (12-11).

A win in the semifinals would secure a state playoff berth and a trip to the title game, while a loss would put Emmaus in a third-place game needing a win to qualify for the state tournament. A win in the semifinal would also likely give the Hornets another shot at defending league champ Parkland, who has beaten Emmaus in all three meetings this season.

“There’s 18 teams (in the EPC) and we got to play for the championship,” said Yoder. “They should be proud of that but we’re hungry for more and we’ll see how districts go. We don’t get to play in district finals if we don’t win the first one. If we do we’ll probably see Parkland again.”

Emmaus is seeking its first boys basketball district title since 1986.