Allentown Central Catholic has won four District 11 Class 4A championships in the last five boys basketball seasons and Vikings coach Dennis Csensits talks about playing for March.
But ACCHS would like better starts than what it has had the last few years. The Vikings were 2-3 after five games last year and 0-4 to start 2022-23.
The 2024-25 team is off to a good start, following up a 76-62 win over District 3 power Trinity on Saturday with a 64-47 victory at Emmaus Monday night in one of several Eastern Pennsylvania Conference season openers.
Central’s two proven stars, Jahrel Vigo and Lucas Mushrush scored 22 and 20 points respectively and the Vikings bolted to an 8-1 lead and never looked back. Mushrush made all three of his 3-pointers to help the Vikings get out to a 22-8 lead.
Emmaus regrouped from its slow start to go on a 13-0 run and cut a 28-11 deficit to 28-24, but the Green Hornets coudn’t sustain the offensive flow.
Matt Rader hit a 3, Mushrush scored on a drive and Yariel Gonzalez scored off a rebound to restore a 35-27 lead at halftime and Emmaus didn’t get closer than six in the second half.
Csensits, who’s focus is always on playing good defense, wasn’t overly thrilled with the Vikings defensive effort. Central was the No. 1 defense in the league last year, allowing just 43.1 points per game. In two games this season, the Vikings have not been as stingy.
“I was disappointed with our man-to-man defense tonight,” he said. “Sometimes when you get a big lead early it’s hard to keep your discipline and focus. And maybe that’s what it was. But I also give Emmaus credit. They have a good basketball team. They play together. They know their roles. We’ve got to get better as a team.”
The Vikings win spoiled the home and EPC debut of new Emmaus coach Jerald Brown. The Green Hornets lost two games by a total of three points in Wilkes-Barre to start the season, losing to Wilkes-Barre Area 63-61 and Holy Reedmer 46-45 and couldn’t climb out of a big first-quarter hole against ACCHS.
“It’s a struggle sometimes to know what the kids have in their heart and know the fight they have,” Brown said. “We keep saying it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.We’re going to keep pushing and seeing what we can do to get off to a fast start. The problem in all of our losses is that we had a slow start. If the boys play and fight like they did from midway through the second quarter and through the second half, if they approach the game with the same type of fire, we’re going to win some of those close games.”
Brown got a big night from Mike Rooney, who led the team with 21 points, making four 3-pointers. He had three treys in getting the Green Hornets back in the game in the second quarter.
But Emmaus managed just 20 points in the second half and struggled to get momentum-generating back-to-back baskets.
“Once you dig a hole that deep and you use up all that energy to overcome, you sometimes run out of the juice to close the game,” Brown said. “We mixed in a 3-2 zone, something I came up with on the fly. We used the 3-2 because that’s effective on the perimeter. A 2-3 is to defend post play. The 3-2 was more effecitive beacuse of their outside shooting. They hadn’t seen it from us and we haven’t even practiced it. It slowed them down, but when you play Central Catholic and the history and talent they possess, they have to be in the top three again in our conference. There are no morale victoies in basketball, but I was pleased with how our kids fought all the way through.”
Mushrush, a Ursinus commit who went over 800 points in his career Monday night, likes where the Vikings are at as all EPC teams have had to hit the ground running with lots of games before the league takes a holiday break from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3.
“We took it right to them tonight and we knew they were a really disciplined team,” Mushrush said. “They are missing a lot ot pieces from last year, but they’re still a really good team. They played well offensively and we were able to get the job done offensively, but we have to get better defensively. That’s going to be the key for this team moving forward. We’ve got to be better, myself included. I’ve got to become a better defender and be able to cover on the ball and off the ball. We’ve got Easton Thursday, but we’re going to have to work our butts off in practice to get ready because they’re a good squad.”
ACCHS 64, Emmaus 47
Cental Catholic 22 – 13 – 12 – 17 — 64
Emmaus 8 – 19 – 10 – 10 — 47
CENTRAL CATHOLIC (64)
Ryan Isbell 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Jones 2-6 4-6 9, Sean Daubert 0-0 0-0 0, Yariel Gonzalez 3-12 1-3 7, DiQuiawn Leak 0-0 0-0 0, Justin Villlegas 0-0 0-0 0, Jared Ford 0-0 0-0 0, Thomas Roth 0-0 0-0 0, Jahrel Vigo 7-9 7-7 22, Lucas Mushrush 7-17 3-4 20, Matt Rader 2-4 0-0 6. Totals 21-48 15-20 64.
EMMAUS (47)
Matt Rooney 1-5 0-0 3, Chase Whitesell 0-1 2-2 2, Jack Csensits 4-9 0-0 9, Owen Hafner 4-7 3-7 11, Mike Rooney 8-19 1-2 21, Matt Deschenes 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Nunez 0-0 1-3 1, Gabe Kabba 0-1 0-2 0, Jaoob Ross 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-42 7-16 47.
3-pointers: CCHS (7-18) Mushrush 3, Rader 2, Vigo, Jones. Emmaus (6-20) Mike Rooney 4, Matt Rooney, Csensits.
Turnovers: Central Catholic 13, Emmaus 10.
Fouls: Central Cathoic 15, Emmas 15.
Officials: Rob Bosak, Danny Hargrove, Steve Serensits
