It wasn’t enough that the Emmaus girls basketball team was playing in districts for the first time under coach Kelsey Gallagher. The Hornets wanted at least one win and even more just to show that they belonged in the tournament. They accomplished that mission with a 42-25 win over Pleasant Valley to move into the quarterfinals of the District 11 Class 6A bracket.

Emmaus had two scorers in double-digits with Kameron Watkins finishing with 12 points, including drilling two three-pointers, and Marah Sisonick finished her high school career with 10 points in the win.

“I thought our girls played really well today,” said Gallagher after the win. “We forced some turnovers and played tough on defense and then hit our shots on offense. It was a nice win and I think it gave the girls a chance to show what they’re capable of on the court.”

The Bears had 26 turnovers in the game, 21 of which came in the first two quarters. The Emmaus defense, which is something of a trademark of the team, held Pleasant Valley to just two points in the second quarter and those came on foul shots by Ella Muir, who finished with a game-high 14 points. Emmaus defense was best in the second and fourth quarters, when it gave up just two points and no points, respectively, in each stanza.

The downside came in the third quarter when Pleasant Valley came out determined to erase the 13-point lead that Emmaus built up over the first 16-minutes. Muir went right to work from the outside, nailing an early three-pointer. She added two more threes in the quarter, scoring 12 points in the third. Samantha Merklin added another three as the Lady Bears scored 18 points in the quarter and got to within five points, but couldn’t completely shut down the Hornet offense and the quarter ended with Emmaus up 34-25.

“We were ready for them to come back at us, because we saw that in the games we were able to watch,” said Gallagher. “You have to hand it to them because they never played like they thought they were out of it.”

Unfortunately for Emmaus, they matched up with top seed Nazareth in the quarterfinal round and lost 47-24, ending their season.