The Parkland girls quest for back-to-back District 11 Championships came to an end Tuesday night with a 44-29 loss to top-seeded Easton. Their attention now turns to Friday's consolation game against Pocono Mountain West, with the winner advancing to the PIAA Tournament.

Gabby Bloshuk led the Red Rovers with 10 points, five of which came in the final quarter of play. It was Bloshuk who delivered the final blow. With 2:45 left to play and Parkland struggling to stick within striking distance, Bloshuk hit a three-pointer to give Easton its largest lead of the game to that point.

"They executed what they did a lot better tonight," said Parkland head coach Wes Spence. "They made baskets is what they did tonight. The ball went in the basket for them and they were aggressive going toward the rim.

"You could see that their girls put the ball on the floor and really attacked us at the basket. They got to the free throw line and they did a really good job on the offensive end of being aggressive and attacking tonight."

Easton turned the ball over nine times in the first 8:30 of the game, but were still able to hold a 20-15 lead over Parkland heading into half-time. The fact that the Lady Trojans weren't able to take advantage of the Lady Red Rovers miscues would ultimately play a large part in ending Parkland's run for a second straight title. The other factor was Parkland's struggles to shoot for a high percentage.

"If you look at our shooting for the night, it can't be good, and I think that's part of it," said Spence. "I thought we executed some things well and I thought we were able to get ourselves some good shots and we got the ball, especially early on, in good positions, where we wanted and we weren't able to take advantage of those opportunities."

Senior Erin Bross finished with 11 points for Parkland and believes her team simply missed too many opportunities against a good team.

"We got beat on defensive things that we were prepared for, so unfortunately, things didn't go our way," she said. "We didn't finish on turnovers and eventually, it got to us."

Easton advances to play second-seeded Nazareth Friday night. The Blue Eagles had a tough challenge on their hands from sixth-seeded Pocono Mountain West, but pulled out a 46-38 win thanks to strong foul shooting down the stretch.

Parkland will face Pocono Mountain West Friday night at Pleasant Valley in the consolation game. The two teams met a month ago, with Parkland picking up a 37-31 win on the Panthers home court.

"They're a very good team," said Spence of the Panthers. "You saw them tonight take Nazareth down to the wire. We're familiar with them, we played them earlier and we'll see. They have a very good player in [Jackie] Benitez, their girls are aggressive, they're athletic, and you saw them give Nazareth trouble with those things. I think they pose a great challenge for us."

Stopping Benitez will be a factor in looking to advance to the PIAA Tournament. In the regular season meeting between the two teams, Benitez scored 20 against Parkland.

"They're definitely a beautiful team and Benitez is a good player, but if we put a really good defense on her, I think we'll be able to win," said Bross.

Asked about his team's performance over the course of the season, Spence had nothing but praise for his team, noting that it faced a tough challenge to try to get back to the District 11 Championship.

"I'm proud of where they are, coming in as district champs, there's a bull's-eye on your back and I thought those girls dealt with that this year," explained the coach. "There were very high expectations for them this year and they did a fantastic job and it's a shame that we came up a little bit short tonight."