Sometimes, you know what a team is going to do against you, but you just can't stop bad things from happening. Such was the case when the Lady Hornets traveled to Parkland last Friday and left with a 40-21 loss, dropping Emmaus to 1-5 in the EPC and 2-6 overall.

Just hours before the game, coach Jeff Williams walked his team through drills, explaining that Parkland was going to use full-court pressure against them. He meticulously explained what his players needed to do to break that pressure and give themselves offensive opportunities.

Somewhere during the trip up Cedar Crest Boulevard to Parkland's gym, the bus must have hit a pothole and shook some of those plans loose.

"The times that we actually swung the ball and had the big girl flash in the middle, we were fine, but then we'd turn it over in the half-court," said Williams after his team put up its lowest point toal of the season. "When they put a little pressure on us, we seemed to panic and fall back to bad habits.

"When we got in the half-court set, we just struggled to run any play and it was a struggle to get into a half-court set early on. Parkland wasn't really forcing our errors, they would just wait for you to make a bad pass and then they execute and attack."

Emmaus turned the ball over six times in the first three minutes of the game and committed a total of 30 turnovers in the game.

On the plus side, Emmaus did hold Parkland (4-1, 6-2) to 40 points, which isn't bad considering the Lady Trojans averaged almost 45 points per game. Williams was encouraged by the continued defensive strength that his team has shown and by its performance earlier in the week in the Berwick Holiday Tournament.

Emmaus downed Dallas 54-42 in their opener before dropping a 48-39 decision to Central Columbia. The loss was close late in the fourth quarter, but Emmaus had to foul and Blue Jays players rarely missed a shot.

"We came out Monday night and were down by one at half and I told them, 'we need to put this game away in the third quarter,' and they did," said Williams. "Even on Tuesday night, it was a battle the whole game and at the end, we had to foul and they closed it out going something like 10-for-10 from the line. I think we were a better team than they were, but we couldn't put them away."

Kiyae White had a game-high 18 points against Central Columbia and was named to the All-Tournament team. Zoey Stein led Emmaus with eight points in their loss to Parkland, while White finished with six.

Emmaus hosts Liberty Thursday night before travelling to Pennsbury on Saturday and Bethlehem Catholic next Tuesday, where it squares off against former assistant coach Jose Molina, who is now the head coach at Beca.