The Emmaus High School girls basketball team began its 2023 regular season last week, opening with a nonconference game before the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference portion of the campaign began to ramp up.

The Green Hornets led after the opening quarter, but were outscored in each of the next three frames and fell in the season opener against nonconference foe Wilson West Lawn, 60-45, back on Dec. 2. Emmaus (1-2 overall; 1-1 EPC) responded in its next game, the conference opener at home against Northampton, jumping out to a strong lead after the first quarter to earn its first victory, 53-34 last Wednesday night.

Two nights later, however, the Green Hornets were bested by Nazareth (3-1) after another game where they led after the opening frame, falling 53-38 on Friday night at Emmaus High School.

Against the Bulldogs, Emmaus led 12-11 after the opening quarter, but then watched as Wilson went on an 18-13 run in the second to go up by four at halftime and never looked back. Freshman Kayla Snyder led all scorers for the Green Hornets with 16 points, including three 3-pointers. Cassandra Doemling tallied eight points and both Mya Cooper and Taylor Griffith added seven.

In the win over the Kids (1-2), the Green Hornets came out firing as they scored 14 of the game’s first 17 points and were ahead by double digits (14-3) following the first quarter. They never took the foot off the gas in winning by 19 points.

Snyder scored with a game-high 15 points to lead a trio in double figures, joined by Gabby DeVita and Sofie Laird, each with 12 points.

Emmaus then also had a double-digit advantage after the first quarter (22-10) against the Blue Eagles, and also were on top by as many as 15 points in the second quarter, but Nazareth stormed back and outscored the Green Hornets 43-16 the last three quarters of action. Snyder (13) and Griffith (12) combined for 25 of their team’s 38 points.