On the heels of a near miss in an upset opportunity against Parkland and a drubbing of a good Pleasant Valley team, the Emmaus girls basketball team looked to build on that momentum as it headed into the toughest stretch of the 2016-17 schedule.

While the confidence was high, Emmaus dropped two straight, falling to top teams Nazareth (11-1, 16-2) and Easton (11-1, 16-2), by combined scores of 146-73.

Defense has been a big part of Emmaus’ success, but has failed to stop high-scoring teams in their last two games. With a record of 7-5 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and 9-9 overall, Emmaus is still seeking that one win to clinch a spot in the District 11 Tournament.

“We knew this was going to be a tough stretch,” said Hornet head coach Carl Scheitrum. “You can never take anything for granted, even if it’s just one win. The EPC has so many good teams that you have to go into every game knowing that it’s going to be a battle.”

Kiyae White scored 16 points against Nazareth, but was held to just 10 against Easton. Cayley Grabowski, who continues to improve, scored nine points in the loss to the Red Rovers.

While Scheitrum can take losing when his players are just up against a better team, he was disappointed with the recent effort, particularly against Nazareth.

“We didn’t come out to play, and that’s the bottom line,” said Scheitrum. “We were just standing around and were getting beaten up and down the floor and that’s the direct opposite of what we were doing against teams like Parkland and Pleasant Valley.”

Even though they came into a stretch where they needed to win just one of six remaining games to qualify for the postseason, Scheitrum was hoping for much more to give his team momentum going into districts.

Now, two of those opportunities for not just a win, but a win that would send a message to other teams about how good Emmaus can be, have passed and the schedule doesn’t have any easy wins the rest of the way.

“We have Northampton again, and we lost to them the first time, and another game with Nazareth,” said Scheitrum. “The other two games [Central Catholic and Whitehall] are against teams that we beat earlier in the year, but neither of those teams are going to let us roll over them.

“We have to fight to make the playoffs and we have to show that we’re better than how we’ve played.”

Emmaus pulled out a 40-39 win over the Vikettes at Rockne Hall in the first meeting of the two teams and slapped Whitehall with a 54-35 loss in their first meeting. Both teams have struggled this season and are at the bottom of the Skyline Division with 4-8 records and little hope of a postseason spot.

The Lady Hornets have the added luxury of both games being at home.

Nazareth was able to get two players to the 20-point mark against Emmaus, with Tessa Brugler scoring 24 and Jess Durnin chipping in with 20 points. The Blue Eagles also had Madison Amy scoring 10 points.

Scheitrum has built his team on playing a strong transition game and focusing on defense, with a goal of keeping opponents under 42 points in a game, the threshold where Scheitrum believes they need to be to win consistently.

Before the two recent losses, Emmaus had accomplished that in six of its last eight games, including holding Parkland to a season low of 37 points in a tough loss for Emmaus.