If the Lady Zephyrs were a heavyweight boxer, the referee would have stopped the fight after the first 11 rounds. With a 1-10 record after a 50-29 loss to Northampton on Jan. 13, Whitehall was counted out of the race for a postseason spot. Suddenly, like Sylvester Stallone in every Rocky movie ever made, the Zephyrs are mounting a rally. First was a win at East Stroudsburg South, followed by home wins against Freedom and Parkland. Then, came their second win of the season against Allen and after a stumble against Pocono Mountain West, Whitehall grabbed two more victories to become one of the hottest teams in the EPC. Tuesday night they faced Central Catholic and hit a wall in a 43-14 loss.

Against Emmaus, Whitehall (7-12 overall, 7-7 EPC) ruined the Lady Hornets’ Senior Night with a 43-35 win, led by 10 points from Olivia Hines and eight points from both M.J. Dunbar and Ella Laky.

“This was a big win,” said Laky after helping to down the Hornets. “We were just trying to pull the energy from our last couple games, knowing that we need these wins to get into districts. Plus, they beat us on our home court for our Senior Night and we wanted to beat them on their home court during their Senior Night.”

After leading from the start of the game, Whitehall allowed Emmaus (11-8, 8-6) to battle back twice in the first two quarters to tie the game and then take a short lived two-point lead with 2:56 left in the first half when the Lady Hornets went up 10-8. That is when Hines initiated a streak of seven unanswered points that stretched into the third quarter as Whitehall opened what was their largest lead of the game to that point when they went up by five points at 15-10 early in the third quarter.

Emmaus again fought back and tied the game at 17 when senior Sarah Hoch hit a three-pointer and classmate Grace Oglesbee followed up with a drive to the basket.

Just as they have had to fight their way back from their difficult 1-10 start, the Zephs battled to slowly build their lead and finished the third quarter ahead 32-24. Midway through the final round of the fight, Emmaus’ Paige Inman hit back-to-back threes to bring Emmaus within one and Mya Cooper put the Hornets up 35-34 when she hit a little jumper with 4:18 left in regulation.

From there, Whitehall came out punching and put the game away by scoring the final nine points of the game, doing most of the damage with foul shots. Ella Laky hit four of five freebies down the stretch and Bella Fonzone added another foul shot to wrap up the win for the Lady Zephyrs.

“There were a lot of reasons why we won, but the biggest was at the end of the game,” said coach Will Robertson. “We were able to possess the ball and get it under control. We work on that in practice. They had home court advantage tonight and had the fans behind them, which is what it’s all about. For Ella to do what she did at the line with all the cheering and yelling that was going on, shows her determination and her leadership qualities.”

The keys to the win were simple to see. Whitehall went 7-for-11 (64-percent) from the line, while the Emmaus foul shooters finished the game just 4-for-13 (31-percent). The Lady Hornets also turned the ball over on eight of their first 10 trips down the court in the game and allowed Whitehall to pull down six offensive rebounds, which led to 10 points on follow-up shots.

“We have really pulled together on our defense the past couple games. We just want to get the ball on rebounds so we can go on offense, especially since we are playing so hard defensively. It’s like we are rewarding ourselves,” said Laky.

Whitehall can qualify for districts with a .500 record in the EPC, which would mean winning one of their two remaining conference games. The EPC playoff picture is a lot murkier. The top five spots in the eight-team postseason tournament are filled by Easton (13-0), Northampton (12-2), Pocono Mountain West (11-2), Bethlehem Catholic and Allentown Central Catholic (10-3). There are seven teams in contention for the final three playoff spots in the EPC. After Tuesday night’s games, Nazareth (8-5), Parkland (8-5) and Emmaus (8-6) would hold the six through eight spots. Whitehall (7-7), Pleasant Valley (7-7), East Stroudsburg South (6-6) and Freedom (6-7) are all hanging around looking for an opening.

The Zephyrs have an admittedly challenging task with games remaining against Northampton (16-4, 12-2) and Parkland (11-7, 8-5). Whitehall lost to the Konkrete Kids in their first meeting and downed Parkland last week. Also on the schedule is a nonconference game against Pine Grove (8-6, 4-6 Schuylkill County League).

“We just started to click after the win over Parkland especially, because that showed us that we really are a good team. Once we saw that, we knew we could get these wins,” explained Laky. “There were some games that we lost that we could have won, and we want to turn that all around.”