Believe it or not, the high school basketball season is closing in on the halfway point. The time for answering questions is over and teams are looking to get hot and establish themselves as they fight for conference and district playoff spots.

The Parkland girls had a few more questions than most teams coming into the season. So much so, that some thought this may be somewhat of a rebuilding year for the program, but they’ve found convincing answers to their questions.

If you look at the recent win over Liberty, the four sophomore players on the team combined to score 31 points in a 49-23 win. Sophomore Kassidy Stout led the sophomore group with 13 points, Shelby Staib had eight, Claire Courter seven, and Kylie Hlay chipped in with three. Another sophomore, Kendra Yeboah joined the varsity squad from the JV team to add a fifth young player to the team.

With senior Emily Piston nursing an injury against Liberty, the young players filled an offensive need for the team. Junior Julia Buchman also stepped up to score 11 points, continuing a strong stretch of games. Over the last four games, Buchman has scored 34 points, part of which came from hitting eight of 10 shots from the free thrown line and dropping down the occasional three-pointer as well.

“One of our questions going into to the season was could we replace some of the production from the graduating senior group from last year,” said Parkland head coach Wes Spence. “Julia has really stepped up and done a terrific job for us this season, as has everyone, starters and reserves.

“She is the type of player that coaches want to work with. She works really hard to try to do everything the coaching staff asks at both ends of the floor. She has done a very nice job of finding her opportunities within the offense is a skilled player and able to take advantage of those opportunities whether it is attacking the basket, knocking down a jump shot or finding the open teammate. I’ve also been very pleased with her play at the defensive end of the floor. She’s an active defender, looks to take charges and plays well within our scheme.”

Parkland hopes to have Piston back this week after she suffered an injury over the holiday break. The senior played through the injury against Northampton, but Spence decided it was best to have her sit against Liberty rather than risk aggravating the injury.

“The hope is that it’s short-term and that we will have Emily on the court again this week,” he said. “Emily is obviously a huge part of our early success and provides great confidence and leadership for our team.”

In addition to having Piston battle an injury, senior Faith Nation has also missed time with an ankle injury and she likely won’t be back for a couple of weeks.

“Faith is a very high energy player off the bench for us who provides great depth and flexibility with our lineup as someone who can play guard or post,” said Spence.

Spence is happy with his team’s 5-1 record in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and 7-2 overall record, especially since it was working to fill holes on the team. Spence credits the hard work that his players have put in, but knows that there are a lot of tough games left on the schedule.

“The challenge with being happy is to not be content,” Spence said. “Our league and district are very good and we have a very challenging schedule over the next five weeks.

“There are a number of areas we are going to have to improve as a team if we are going to give ourselves an opportunity to compete for championships.

“Our biggest challenge as a coaching staff is to keep getting better. We have to continue to challenge our players at practice and do things to put our players in position to be successfully on game nights.

“I am very fortunate that off the court our players are great students and great people. Our four seniors - Devyn Anderson, Rachel Medlar, Nation and Piston - provide tremendous leadership and set great examples for our program and help create a great team environment.

“As we move forward I am sure we will continue to meet challenges and obstacles so as the coach, I need to be able to help our team maintain focus and continue to perform as we look to put our team in the best position possible for an opportunity in the postseason.”

The Lady Trojans travel to East Stroudsburg North Friday night and then host Emmaus next Tuesday night.