The Emmaus girls basketball team missed this year’s Stellar Tournament in favor of playing the Holy Family Tournament Family Tournament, with a couple of other local programs, including Central Catholic.

But the Lady Hornets were in action this past weekend at Cedar Beach playing in this year’s SportsFest girls tournament.

The Emmaus girls, down a few players because of injury or other sports commitments, finished their run 1-2 last weekend, but showed promise and improvement in each of the three games.

“I thought that it was a good weekend for the girls and for our program,” said head coach Carl Scheitrum. “We were missing a few players, and didn’t have our full-depth, but the girls that were here really played hard and played well, and I’m happy with the way we performed here this weekend.”

Rising senior Kiyae White, who missed most of last year because of an ACL tear, sat out this weekend to be fully healthy for when the winter season comes around.

In the opening round game on Thursday night, the Green Hornets lost to perennial power Neshaminy 41-22.

But the Green Hornets did not let that first loss get them down, they bounced back on Saturday morning with a 34-29 victory against Catasauqua. Junior Ciara Wippel led the way with a game-high 13 points.

“Ciara stepped up for us this weekend without some of our other regulars,” said Scheitrum. “Not only in the win, but all three games, she was a consistent positive for us.”

With a chance to advance out of the group stage and into the playoff round Sunday, the Green Hornets fell just shy of reaching their Sunday goal, dropping a nine-point game to North Hunterdon 42-33 Saturday evening.

“We’ve had a good summer so far,” Scheitrum said. “We were able to play in these two tournaments back-to-back weekends, and the girls are all involved in other sports, so they are staying active.”