If Parkland was looking for a statement win, it came Tuesday night when the Lady Trojans downed Easton 36-27, giving the Red Rovers their first EPC loss of the season and just their second loss overall. The win is Parkland's fourth straight and pushed its record to 5-1 in the EPC and 7-2 overall.

Tuesday night, it was Nadine Ewald's turn to step up, scoring a game-high 12 points, with Aubrey Beidelman chipping in with eight. Erin Bross scored seven for the Lady Trojans.

Once again, it was also a big defensive night for Parkland, holding Easton to its lowest point total of the season. The Red Rovers came in averaging 45 points per game through their first 10 games of the season.

Last Friday, Parkland's defense swarmed over Emmaus, which couldn't find a way to handle Parkland's full-court pressure. The Trojans regularly stepped in front of Emmaus passes, helping to lead the Hornets to six turnovers in the first three minutes and a game total of 30 turnovers.

"I think our girls have done a really nice job defensively," said coach Wes Spence after the win over Emmaus. "They play with great effort, they try to execute the defense and we have girls who play their hardest.

"We also have a number of girls who are able to rotate in and I think that when the girls are in they do a great job in trying to execute our game plans. When you have girls who are willing to do what you want them to do and you have a number of girls that you're able to use to do those things, I think that helps us out a lot."

Offensively, the Lady Trojans have averaged 42 points per game, but haven't been able to find a rhythm. Their offense has been up and down throughout the season, ranging from scoring more than 50 points in a game three times, to being held under 30 points twice.

"We have nights where we shoot the ball very well," said Spence. "And then we have nights like tonight [against Emmaus], where I think we made the game a lot more difficult on ourselves by not making some good shot opportunities, whether that be layup or open jump shot opportunities. When we walk in and we do the things we need to do, we can be a pretty good basketball team. Otherwise, when we're not doing everything that we need to do, then we can make life kind of difficult on ourselves."

Parkland's upcoming schedule has the Lady Trojans facing Freedom (3-4, 5-6) Friday night before traveling to Pocono Mountain West (3-2, 5-4) on Monday. Parkland then hosts Dieruff (2-4, 2-6) next Tuesday night before starting a string of seven straight road games. At least the schedule will be more consistent, unlike what teams face during the holidays.

Spence is hoping that getting back into a routine will allow his players to work on their offensive consistency, making the team tougher in the second half of the season than its been in the first.

"The holidays bring a lot of distractions and you have all kinds of family things and even when you don't have family things, you're sleeping all day and getting up at two or three in the afternoon," Spence said with a laugh. "When we get back into the routine, the girls get back into that normal work week schedule and I think that will probably be nice."

The next big test comes January 16 when the Lady Trojans face division rival Nazareth (7-1, 10-1), who along with Central Catholic and Parkland are battling for the top spot in the EPC's Skyline Division.