This season has been pretty well split into three separate entities for Emmaus girls basketball. The team endured a three-game losing skid early in the season to put them at 3-5 on the year overall, with the highlight being an impressive win over Central Catholic at Rockne Hall three days before Christmas.

From there, head coach Carl Scheitrum challenged his team with the number 42. That was the number he wrote on a white board and circled, stressing to his team that if it could hold opponents to 42 points, it could win a lot of games.

The Hornets responded and in six of their next eight games, they did just that and came out with a 6-2 record in those games. In the last three games of that stretch, Emmaus held a high-scoring Parkland team to just 37 points, but fell 37-33. They also held Muhlenberg to 40, but lost 40-38. At 9-7 overall and 7-3 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, things looked great for the team. After an impressive 63-30 win over a good Pleasant Valley team, Emmaus had to win just one of its remaining six games to qualify for the District 11 Tournament.

That’s where things started to go wrong.

After losses to Nazareth and Easton, second-year coach Carl Scheitrum took a voluntary leave of absence and assistant Chris Basile stepped in to take over the team for the rest of the season. Emmaus now had four games, two of which were against EPC-playoff bound Nazareth and Northampton, along with two against Central Catholic and Whitehall, both are teams that Emmaus beat earlier in the season.

Northampton downed Emmaus 68-57, leaving three games left and the Vikettes rallied from a 10-point deficit to down the Lady Hornets 42-29 Friday night. In that game, another big blow hit the team when senior Kiyae White, who has a full athletic scholarship to Auburn University, went down with a knee injury. Reports are that White is lost for the season, although the exact extent of the injury isn’t known.

“We just really needed that win tonight,” said a disappointed Zoe Stein. “We can’t wait until that very last game for the win.”

“It’s been tough for these girls,” said Basile after the loss to Central Catholic. “I think they’re pressing a little now and they realize that they’re no longer in a spot where they have a lot of opportunities. The losses are taking their toll and our confidence took a hit, but they’ll go out and battle, I don’t doubt that.”

A 67-32 loss to Nazareth Monday night leaves Emmaus at 7-8 in the EPC and 9-12 overall, which means that it needs a win against Whitehall (4-11, 6-15) in the final game of the season against Whitehall. Fortunately, the game is at Emmaus and seniors White and Stein will be saluted prior to the game, which may give the team a momentum bounce going into the contest.

Emmaus now has a five-game losing skid and has lost seven of their last eight games. With no room for error, Basile believes that his team has enough left to bounce back.

“I don’t count them out for anything,” said Basile. “There was never a time this season where they pouted or were ready to give up, even when we had tough games. I look for them to rally and put things together.”

Prior to the loss to Central Catholic, the JV team put together an impressive showing against the JV Vikettes, with Brooke Wunderler hitting a shot with just six seconds left to play to give Emmaus a 38-36 win. Taylor O’Brien scored 17 points for the JV Hornets to lead all scorers in the game.