Sometimes, a loss can teach a team a lot about itself. That was the case in Emmaus' season opener against Pocono Mountain East, when the girls basketball team discovered that it could be its own worst enemy. The Cardinals downed Emmaus 43-35, handing first-year coach Jeff Williams his first loss.

The game could have gone a different direction, but Emmaus struggled to hit shots early and then found two key players - Destanee Watkins and Kiyae White - in early foul trouble that just turned an obstacle into a major hurdle.

"Our best defender is on the bench with two fouls early, and then, our best post and best offensive player is sitting on the bench for most of the second quarter and when they packed into a zone, without Kiyae in there to finish strong, we really struggled," said Williams. "I lose two defenders and we lose the flow and they're getting back-door cuts and easy layups and all of that stuff started to snowball."

White fouled out with 1:06 left in the game and Emmaus trailing 41-32.

Williams allowed his players some time to be upset about the loss, but gave them a plan to follow to get right back on track for their next game, which came less than 24 hours later. Williams had concerns about the loss affecting the team with such a short turnaround time.

"It can't," said Williams of his team allowing the loss to get them down. "We've got four games in five days, so I said to them, 'you can think about this until you get home. Once you step in your door, you think about Hamburg tomorrow.'"

Apparently, the players did just that and came out strong against Hamburg on Saturday afternoon, to pick up a 59-40 win, evening Williams record as a coach. White and Zoe Stein, both sophomores, led the offense, with White knocking down 18 points and Stein connecting of four three-pointers and finishing with 14 points.

Stein's contribution was especially noteworthy, because Emmaus struggled to shoot from outside against Pocono Mountain East, something that Williams said the team would have to find a way to improve on if it is going to be successful.

"Teams are going to pack into zones against us and we won't always be able to get Kiyae inside, so we have to shoot from outside," said Williams, prior to Stein's effort against Hamburg. "Right now, we don't have anybody who has stepped up to do that for us, so we're going to struggle with that."

Emmaus traveled to East Stroudsburg North Monday night and lost 36-33 to the Cavaliers, dropping the Lady Hornets record to 1-2. Emmaus goes right back up north Tuesday night to play Stroudsburg before returning home against Nazareth Friday night.

Williams is hoping for his team to get off to quick starts in games, like they did against Hamburg, to help them fend off having to come from behind and also fight off the habit of getting down on themselves when they struggle.

"Early on, give me layups, make those easy shots that could shift the whole momentum the other way," said Williams.