After putting together a winning streak of 13 games over the course of nearly a month, the Parkland girls basketball team is now in the midst of a two-game losing skid, their longest of the season.

While Tuesday night's 39-27 defeat to Central Catholic at Rockne Hall was just their second in a row, the Trojans fell to 7-3 in the LVC and remain behind the Vikettes, Becahi and Nazareth in the conference standings.

The Vikettes (16-3, 10-1 LVC) pulled away from the Trojans (14-3, 7-3) during a pivotal fourth quarter spurt. A five-point lead after the third quarter quickly ballooned to double digits when the Vikettes scored 10 of the final quarter's first 12 points. That gave the Vikettes a 37-23 lead, their largest of the game, which essentially ended any possible comeback from the Trojans.

While the Trojans connected on just three of their 12 fourth quarter field goals, everything seemed to find the bottom of the net for the Vikettes, as they hit all of their field goals in the final eight minutes.

"Our Achilles heel has always been shooting the basketball," said head coach Wes Spence. "If they shoot like that and we shoot like that, it's going to be awfully tough for us to win games."

The Trojans fell in an early 9-1 hole out of the gate, and trailed by as many as nine points in the first quarter.

But that deficit was quickly erased.

Hannah Gombos tallied consecutive three-pointers for the Trojans to start the second quarter. And after a Brynne Brouse bucket down low, the Trojans got to within just one point nearing halftime.

However, every time the Trojans were in position to take the lead, the Vikettes would muster together a strong offensive spurt in front of their home crowd. That lead was quickly built back up to six points and the Vikettes led 19-13 at halftime.

"You have to give them credit," said Spence. "They knocked down jump shots tonight. They had jump shots off of our defensive rotation. Give their girls credit for making those shots."

"That's one of the things that we talk about," said Spence. "The girls fight back. These kids are fighters. They do a really nice job."

The Trojans got to within two points on two occasions in the third quarter once again, but could never overtake the Vikettes. The Trojans' only lead was 1-0.

"We got down early and we fought back," said Spence. "We were down again at halftime and we got right back into it. The third quarter, I think [we] spent so much energy doing that that we needed every basket to go in. You just spend so much energy coming back that tonight we weren't able to get over that hump."

Brouse - who started the second half in place of Sierra Derti, who wasn't feeling well - scored 10 points, with eight of those coming after halftime.

"With Sierra going down, Brynne is our third post," said Spence. "She had an opportunity there in the second half, and I'm really pleased with the effort that she gave there in the second half."

Gombos added 10 and three assists in the defeat.

The Trojans will next host Nazareth on Friday night, the team ahead of them in the North division and responsible for their first conference loss of the season. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.