Parkland came into last week’s semifinals of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Tournament looking to knock off top-seeded Bethlehem Catholic, which had beaten the Lady Trojans (17-6) during the regular season in their only meeting.

Things looked promising for a while, but Beca was able to get a couple of Parkland players in foul trouble and pulled away for a 47-39 win over Parkland to advance to the EPC finals, where the Lady Hawks (23-2) downed Easton, the defending league champ, 45-40.

Senior Emily Piston led Parkland with 12 points, while Beca’s Neila Luma led all scorers with 13 points in the game.

Parkland got off to a slow start, with the Golden Hawks scoring the first six points of the game and eventually stretching their way to a 12-2 lead late in the first quarter. Undaunted, Parkland fought its way back and trailed 21-20 at halftime, thanks in part to shooting 13-of-17 from the free throw line.

Rachel Medlar finished the first half with three fouls and later in the game, Julia Buchman and Devyn Anderson also got into foul trouble and eventually fouled out, both with under 1:20 to play.

“Maybe that gets into their heads a little, but I don’t think we changed a whole lot,” said coach Wes Spence about the foul situation. “I thought we played two very good halves defensively.

“They had 47 points, but we were fouling for the last two minutes just to try to get the ball back, so I thought that defensively, we did a good job.”

The physical play on both sides seemed to take a toll on Anderson, who was still recuperating from an illness that had been plaguing her since before the EPC Tournament even got underway.

“They’re a good, physical team and I was trying to be physical back and got some fouls called. It would have been really nice to play on Friday and we were hoping that we would, but these extra days will help us get healthy and get things together again,” said Anderson, referring to the potential of playing in the EPC Final.

“Dev’s a trooper,” noted Spence. “She played sick last Friday. She was sick all week and she’s definitely hurting, which is why we let Shelby be the starter, just to give her a little more rest. She’s a warrior and does a fantastic job.”

If there is any silver lining in the loss, it’s that the added days off could be an advantage for Parkland to regroup mentally and physically after playing one of the tougher stretches of basketball of any team late in the season.

“I think we can use the rest if you look at how the last two or three weeks have been,” said Spence, who is in his eighth season at Parkland. “We played CB East, Nazareth, Cumberland Valley, Allen, Northampton, Pocono East last Friday and now Beca.

“We’ve had one game after another where we were playing big, competitive teams. Obviously, I’d like to be playing [in the EPC championship], but it doesn’t hurt us to have a few days off and be healthy going into next week.”

This week brings the start of the District 11 Tournament to determine not just the district champion, but which teams will qualify for the PIAA Tournament and a shot at the state title. The Lady Trojans come into the tournament as the number-two seed, behind only Nazareth.

The opening game for Parkland is against Freedom (14-9), the number-seven seed, tonight at 7:30. The game will be played as the second game of a doubleheader at Whitehall High School, with Easton (21-4) and Allen (14-8) playing in the opener at 6:00.

As banged up as they were coming out of the EPC Tournament, Anderson had no doubts that her team would be ready mentally and physically for district play.

“We’re going to be really ready for districts,” said Anderson with a big smile. “We’re really excited.”