Even when the Lady Trojans jumped out to an early 9-0 lead, nobody on the Parkland bench was assuming that the rest of the night was going to be as easy.

With multiple weapons to strike with, Northampton was bound to battle back and they did. In the end though, it was Parkland that came out on top thanks to some heroics from Devyn Anderson in the game’s final seconds, giving Parkland a 57-56 win over the Konkrete Kids.

Northampton (3-2, 6-3) didn’t take its first lead until there were just 19 seconds left to play. Aja Blount, who finished with 27 points, scored to give Northampton a 56-55 edge, but the lead would only hold up for 14 seconds.

During a timeout, coach Wes Spence set a couple different options for his team on offense, hoping that if one plan wasn’t there, another would be. Anderson looked to pass, but instead, wound up driving the lane against Blount to score the winning basket.

As Northampton tried for a desperation shot, Kassidy Stout knocked the inbound pass to the floor, locking up the one-point win for Parkland (4-1, 6-2).

“We had three different options that we could have gone to from the play,” said Anderson, who finished with 14 points. “I was going to pass it off to Emily [Piston], but she wasn’t open, so I just took it myself and was hoping it would go in.”

Both Blount and Victoria Keenan (15 points) came to life in the second quarter, helping to pull Northampton back into the game. Parkland continuously came up with a big basket or defensive play to stop the momentum.

In the third quarter, Northampton cut the lead to 34-31, but within two minutes, Parkland had stretched it back to an eight-point lead, only to see Northampton again battle back to make it a one-point game when Keenan hit a three-pointer with less than a minute left in the quarter.

Claire Courter came off the bench to hit a key three-pointer with 3:10 left in the third quarter to stretch Parkland’s lead back to eight at 39-31. Courter also came up with a couple defensive plays late in the game for Parkland.

Spence has found some weapons to bring off the bench who contribute on the court more than just giving the starters a break during the game.

“Keeley Coval did a really good job coming in early, she handles the ball well and can shoot the ball. Claire Courter, when she comes in has done some good things. The more we can get her the ball and get her some opportunities and work her in, we think she can do some real positive things for us,” said Spence.

With 3:33 left in the game, Anderson drove the lane and Blount was called for her fourth foul. Anderson’s shot was good, but even though she missed the free throw, Parkland was up 53-48 and Blount joined Keenan with four fouls.

The foul trouble took away some aggressiveness from Northampton and Parkland was able to take advantage of the situation and stayed aggressive, giving them an edge late in the game.

“I told the girls that I was happy with how the scoreboard looked at the end, but was more pleased with a lot of the things that we did during the game,” said Spence. “We had a much better sustained focus. I thought we executed better at the offensive end.

“We were making less turnovers and we were executing better. From that standpoint, to do that against a good team, I was really pleased with.”

Parkland plays Thursday at Liberty (1-4, 1-8) and returns home Tuesday night against Central Catholic (2-3, 3-5).