The Parkland boys basketball seniors were the leaders and the heart and soul of the team all season. They went 65-21 over the last three seasons, and had made it to three District 11 4A championship games, winning the last two. But the team fell just short of advancing to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2009, falling to District One's Bayard Rustin of West Chester 60-57 last Wednesday night at the Geigle Complex at Reading High School.

Two of the seniors, and leading scorers, Nick Rindock and Justin Zajko, led the way with 20 points and 15 points, respectively. But as another senior, point guard Jimmy Hahn, took an inbounds pass and dribbled up court, his three-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed in and out, and the Trojans suffered a second consecutive loss in the second round of the PIAA state tournament.

"There's no one person on our team who should feel the weight of this loss on his shoulders," head coach Andy Stephens said. "Basketball is too long of a game and there are too many plays to pin it on one person."

What stung from this one was that the Trojans had leads after the second and third quarters, and held a 57-56 lead with 16 seconds to go.

"That team kept hanging around and hanging around," noted Stephens. "I must have said it at least five times during the game when we were up by three or four that we should have been up by 10."

Zajko connected on two free throws with 16.4 seconds remaining, to give Parkland (22-7) the 57-56 advantage. But it was gone in a matter of seconds, or as quick as Rustin guard Ethan Ridgeway (14 points, 13 assists) could take the ball down the court and to the rim. His layup gave the Golden Knights a 58-57 lead with nine seconds remaining.

But just as the Trojans tried to quickly inbound the ball for a chance at winning, the inbounds pass was tipped and stolen by Chris Richardson, who made two foul shots with 4.6 seconds left to make it a three-point gap.

Turnovers were a big disadvantage for Parkland in the game. The Trojans had 21 turnovers, eight in the fourth quarter, when they were held to just one field goal and 10 points.

Even with a good, young core of players coming up in the program, the seniors on this team will be hard to replace.

"This group is going to be really hard to replace because of their leadership and the great teammates that they were," said Stephens. As a coach, when you don't have problems and have kids you like to be around, that's such a joy for an entire staff. I couldn't ask for a better group of seniors."