After going through the regular season with just one conference loss, the Lady Trojans seemed poised to add a conference championship to their resume. Unfortunately, Easton’s Lady Rovers, had other plans and came out on top 60-47 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game to win their first league title since 1970.

Gabby Bloshuk led Easton with 14 points, including going 6-for-8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. Easton hit four three-pointers in the first half, helping the Rovers to a 26-19 lead at halftime.

“We let them shoot them,” said coach Wes Spence. “They have girls who will shoot and are good shooters and we did not close out to take that away from them. We stayed steps off of them, and unfortunately made those looks available to them. That goes on me and it’s something we have to make sure we do a better job of in the future.”

Parkland did a better job of guarding the perimeter in the second half, causing Easton to change up its strategy and work the ball inside more. After going 4-for-12 on three-pointers in the first half, Easton didn’t even attempt a three-pointer in the second half.

Emily Piston led Parkland with 15 points and Rachel Medlar had 12.

One of the keys for Easton was their ability to contain Nadine Ewald in the first half, keeping her scoreless through the first 16-minutes. Ewald scored seven second-half points for Parkland, but the Red Rovers kept constant pressure on her and didn’t allow many shots from inside the paint.

“They’re a very physical team and it was a physical game inside and as a result, whether it was missed shots or lack of entries we had trouble with that,” said Spence. “They also did a nice job on the perimeter, kind of speeding us up a little bit and those are things that we’ll have to go back and look at. I think it was a combination of them being physical, which we knew they would be, and then us not getting the ball inside.”

The loss made Parkland the two seed in the District 11 Class 4A tournament, with a potential rematch with Easton coming in the district finals. Parkland received a first-round bye and will play the winner of the Stroudsburg/Northampton game Friday night at Catasauqua High School. The Lady Trojans edged Northampton in overtime in the EPC semifinals. Parkland finished third in districts last season, losing to Easton in the semis before beating Pocono Mountain West in the consolation game.

While losing the conference championship was disappointing, Spence believes that the experience can still pay off for his players as they head into districts and more pressure situations.

“Being in this environment is a positive,” he said. “You get to play a game for a medal that is in front of a crowd like this. You’re playing for a championship and that’s a great experience.

“No one else besides these two teams has that advantage in the 4A bracket, so I think just being in that environment is a positive and that absolutely can help us. Playing in a pressure situation is good for a team.”