You could say Nazareth had Parkland's number before the two teams met in Tuesday's District 11 4A girls basketball semifinal at William Allen High School's Sewards Gym, winning two of the three meetings this season.

The No. 3 seeded Trojans were itching to get back on the floor against the same Nazareth topped them for an LVC title less than two weeks ago.

And despite overcoming a double-digit deficit to start the fourth quarter and closing to within four points with 1:03 to play, the Trojans couldn't fully claw their way back. The No. 2 seeded Blue Eagles finished the game on a 6-2 run to hold on for the 49-41 victory, advancing them to the championship game on Friday.

"It would've been nice to I think have a couple more minutes," said head coach Wes Spence, "but the bottom line is we didn't play that way for the first 27 minutes. You can't come out against a good team and make the mistakes that we made tonight as a team and expect to win."

That Blue Eagles' lead was pushed to as much as 13 points on a number of occasions in the third quarter before the Trojans made their spurt in the final minutes of the fourth.

Allison Cressman hit a three-pointer from the right wing with 1:25 to play that made it 43-37. Olivia Brown then hit two free throws to bring the Trojans to within four just seconds later.

After two Blue Eagle free throws, Cressman hit a driving layup with 50.5 seconds left that brought the Trojans back to within four. But that's as close as it would get.

"I was really pleased with the energy and effort we gave in that last sort of five minutes in desperation," said Spence. "But I wish we would've had it throughout."

The win marks the third victory for the Blue Eagles over the Trojans in four meetings this season.

"Their guards don't turn the ball over," said Spence. "They have seven or eight girls who are capable of scoring for them on any given night. And they have six girls who knock down three-pointers."

The Trojans scored the second quarter's first bucket to go ahead by one. But it was a Blue Eagle 16-6 spurt from that point on that put them up 24-15 at halftime.

Stephanie Madara's three-pointer as time expired in the half was the Blue Eagles' third of the second quarter. They made five of 13 first half three-pointers and shot 9-for-23 from the field before halftime.

"That was a big one; it goes from a six-point game to a nine-point game going into the half," said Spence. "That's a tough one. But otherwise, that's what they do. And our kids need to respond to that. We know that's what they do."

Callie Krajcir was the lone Trojan in double figures with nine of her 10 points coming before halftime. Cressman added nine for the Trojans.

A trip to states is still on the line for the Trojans, as they'll face the loser of the other semifinal game between Pocono Mountain West and Bangor on Friday night in the third place contest. The winner will advance onto states.