When you reach the PIAA basketball tournament, you know you’re going to be playing against good teams. For Parkland’s girls team, its first-round draw is especially tough as the Trojans have to play the Abington Heights Galloping Ghosts (24-4), the third-place team from a tough District One.

The easiest way to stop the Ghosts is to stop Kassondra Brown, their 6-foot-2 center who is headed to the University of Rhode Island. Brown is a force both offensively and defensively, averaging 18 points per game and 13 rebounds per game this season.

Stopping or at least containing Brown becomes especially difficult with the loss of Lindsay Berger, who sprained an ankle during districts and will be out against Abington. Berger and senior Kassidy Stout provided size down low for Parkland, giving them the ability to fight teams with good size. Coach Ed Ohlson saw Abington play last Friday in districts and came away well impressed with Brown.

“She’s definitely very good,” said Ohlson. “She really battles and can play both ends of the floor. The thing about her is that even if you do beat her, she has such great arm-span that she can still reach in and disrupt a play.”

Abington doesn’t rely on going very deep into its roster, sticking instead with mainly the starting five players and a couple extra to provide breathers for the starters. With a strong starting five, they don’t really need to dig too deeply for help.

“They’ve played a number of top-10 teams from District 11 and have beaten them by double-digits, sometimes by 20 points,” said Ohlson. “They won a good league [Suburban One] and fought through districts in a very tough District One. They’ve been tested and have come through well.”

As for Parkland (15-11), the loss of Berger has put role players like Zoey Wilkinson in the spotlight and they’ve responded well, but the Lady Trojans have dropped three of their four postseason games.

“Our young girls have stepped up and they’re getting a lot of minutes and are playing well and making the most of the opportunity,” said Ohlson. “Unfortunately, they don’t have the size that Lindsay does, but the effort and the results are there. So you can’t fault them for the job that they’ve done.

“We’re just not playing very well right now and we’ll have to make a big jump to beat Abington. It’s going to be tough, but if we play our game, we’ve definitely got a shot.”

Playing their game is going to be especially important for the Lady Trojans. With the team struggling, they’ve gotten somewhat impatient at times and have been looking to force something to happen.

Having to fight Brown inside will very likely push Parkland to look for some open outside shots and the Trojans have the weapons to produce from outside with players like Claire Courter, who has been one of the better three-point shooters in the Lehigh Valley this season. Courter also has the ability to cut inside and could use that when given an opening.

Ohlson mentioned the progress that he’s seen in some players this season and doesn’t doubt that they can rise to the occasion in big games and make good things happen. He also believes that seniors who are potentially playing in their last game can rally players around them.

“You look at Zoey Wilkinson and Kaz Kennedy and Ashlyn Fritzinger and Kaitlyn Rothwell and you see that there is a lot of talent there,” he said. “They don’t seem fazed by big games, either. I think the girls are OK, morale wise. At practice, some of the seniors have started to talk about facing their final game and have been stressing to the other players how important these games are and how tough we’re going to have to play.”

The game against the Galloping Ghosts is Friday night at Council Rock South High School at 7:30 p.m.