The first month and-a-half of the 2025-26 regular season may not have all gone the way the Emmaus High School boys basketball team would have hoped it would, but with the turn of the new calendar year, 2026 has brought some positive momentum thus far.

After starting the campaign 4-7 overall, the Green Hornets won their first two games in January, both in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

After a 17-day layoff between games, Emmaus was back out on the court on Tuesday, Jan. 6, and defeated Stroudsburg 63-59. The Hornets followed that up with a 54-43 victory against Pocono Mountain East last Friday.

“We know we’re a good basketball team,” said Emmaus head coach Eric Luckenbill. “I’m not worried about our record. Our record tells a story, but I think our story is that we’re better than our record is and we’re going to show that.

“We can’t control what happened before, but we have some really competitive games coming up. We have a stretch of games that we know we can win but we also know that we need to be prepared and execute.”

In the win over the Mounties, Emmaus had a strong, bounce-back second quarter and then had to hold on late in the fourth to secure the victory.

The Hornets trailed 14-9 after the first quarter, but used a 22-9 second quarter to turn the tide and lead at halftime. They still were ahead 46-34 after three, but Stroudsburg rallied in the fourth quarter and pulled to within just one possession with under a minute to play.

Jake Ross and Lucas Stephan combined to score 41 points, with Ross netting 21 and Stephan 20. Matt Rooney tallied 10 points.

In the victory against the Cardinals, Emmaus trailed after each of the first three quarters, including 38-30 heading into the final frame. The Hornets rallied with a 24-5 fourth quarter for the win, in front of several legendary alumni, including the last district championship team from 1986.

Stephen finished with a team-high 18 points and Rooney contributed 10 points. Ross tallied seven points and Kellen Hafner added five.

“I think we had six 1,000-point scorers at the game, which is so neat,” Luckenbill said. “Our booster club was amazing putting the alumni night together. It’s something that I asked if we could do when I got here last Spring. It meant a lot having so many former alumni here tonight.”

Emmaus, which is now 6-7 overall, was at Bethlehem Catholic Monday night, host Whitehall Thursday night and then travel to Pottstown for a nonconference game Saturday afternoon.