Hopes of a trip to the District 11 Tournament for the Lady Hornets were dashed by a 49-41 loss to Whitehall in the season finale, giving Emmaus a six-game losing streak to finish the season that left it just short of qualifying for the postseason.

Bri Hart led all scorers with a game-high 13 points and Kathryn DeJohn scored seven for Emmaus. Kylee Cunningham and Brianna Smith each scored 10 points for Whitehall.

Prior to the game, Emmaus saluted its two senior players, Zoe Stein and Kiyae White. White was unable to play after tearing her right ACL in a loss to Central Catholic a week earlier. Stein was taken out of the game in the final minute to an ovation from the fans.

“It’s tough to see those two go,” said interim coach Chris Basile. “They both competed really hard for us and worked really hard for us and we’ll miss seeing them around, but they both have very bright futures ahead of them.”

Emmaus was held scoreless in the first quarter of the game and were trailing by 13 at the half, but showed some fight in the second half of the game and cut the Lady Zephyr’s lead to 46-41 with less than a minute to play. From there though, Whitehall was able to regain their composure and held on to pick up the win, denying Emmaus a spot in the playoffs.

“I thought we came ready to play tonight,” said Basile. “Senior night is always a distraction just because there are other activities going on. On the positive side, we didn’t quit. I was proud of how the girls fought to the very end.”

Emmaus was hurt by having three players foul out of the game. Cayley Grabowski, who may have shown the most progress of any player on the roster this season, fouled out with 2:29 to play in the third quarter.

Leah Tannous and Ciara Wippel both fouled out within a little over two minutes of each other in the final minutes of the game.

“We dug a hole for ourselves and then, it took too much energy to fight back,” said Basile. “We got some decent looks in the first half, but nothing was falling, and then we got into foul trouble.”

While Emmaus had just two seniors on the roster this season, it has 11 juniors who showed signs of development over the season, which gives some hope for next season. Many of those juniors saw a good amount of playing time this season.

“We think that we have some bright spots on the team and that with a good group of juniors to rely on and some younger players coming behind them who can provide support, there are some things to build on down the road,” said Basile.

The first order of business is figuring out whether coach Carl Scheitrum, who took a voluntary leave of absence late in the season, will return to coach the team next year. If not, the program will have its fourth coach in five seasons to open next season.

“Right now, it’s all about celebrating the effort that these players put into this season and celebrating our senior players who gave us great years and some really great moments,” said Basile. “The future is for later, right now, it’s just time to focus on these players and what they’ve done.”