Emmaus coach Billy Dunn was conflicted after Saturday's 63-49 loss to Liberty.

On one hand, his team committed 27 turnovers and wound up losing by 14. On the other hand, his team played a hard-fought game and had cut down a big lead to within eight points in the second half against a team that Dunn believes is the second-best in the Lehigh Valley Conference.

"There's two parts to this," said Dunn. "On the negative end, of those 27 turnovers, let's just say hypothetically 10 points were easy, uncontested layups, they were easy turnovers. We got panicked.

"The other end is that we cut it to eight with a minute and a half and you just want to go back and grab those turnovers."

Liberty was led by Kay West, who scored a game-high 20 points, with Emmaus' Beth Wiseley second in scoring with 18. West and Wiseley were named their team's game MVPs, receiving a trophy for their play in the Yasso-Rothrock Christmas City Classic.

The game marked the varsity debut for several Lady Hornets, including freshman Kiyae White, who has cracked the team's starting lineup. White finished with eight points after a rough start that saw her pick up two fouls in the game's first minute of play.

Jenna Lessel, who saw some time with the varsity squad last season, scored 10 points after entering the game with White in foul trouble. Dunn was impressed with the performance of his young players and believes they'll continue to get better.

"I think we learned some things," he said. "I thought Jenna [Lessel] did a really nice job and in the second half, I thought Kiyae [White] started to pick it up a little bit. We have to be patient with some things. We started to attack a little more in the second half and overall, I'm really happy with what some of our younger players have done."

Liberty seemed to find an extra gear every time Emmaus started to close in on the Hurricanes. Emmaus grabbed an early 6-1 lead before Liberty took a 9-8 lead on a three pointer from Madison Capuano with four minutes left in the first quarter. That started a Liberty run that saw them score 10 unanswered points and held a 16-8 lead at the end of the first half. The Lady Hurricanes also scored six points in the last minute of the first-half to hold a 27-17 lead at halftime.

"Liberty is the number two team in the LVC, there's no question in my mind," said Dunn.

"Beca is number one. "After what I saw tonight, they're number two. They'll be in every game they play. So we lost the game, but there are some positives. I'm proud of the girls. It's the first game in a long season."

Emmaus is scheduled to play at Hamburg tonight before coming home against Allen on Friday and then playing at Dieruff next Tuesday.

Dunn has a lot of confidence in his team and believes that they'll continue to progress as some of the younger players gain more confidence.

"We always get better," said Dunn. "Now we can look at tape and say 'let's fix this.' We'll look at the video with the girls and let them see how we can improve."