Sophomore Gracie Ervin has been consistent all season for the Emmaus High School girls basketball team, but hasn’t had to step up into the limelight a whole lot because of seniors Gabby DeVita and Olive Whitney, who lead the team in scoring.

Ervin was needed last Tuesday in the District 11 6A semifinal round game at Whitehall High School. She delivered, scoring a career-high 21 points in leading the third-seeded Hornets to a 47-44 victory over second-seeded Parkland.

“I think our defense led to the offense,” said Ervin. “The communication from everyone on the court showed tonight and we really played like a team, moving the ball and finding the open shot. I really just fed off my teammates and they found me with good passes.”

It was the third meeting between the two teams this year, with Emmaus winning the opener and Parkland taking the second game of the regular season.

The two teams have met in three consecutive district semifinal matches with the Trojans winning the previous two.

The game was back-and-forth and physical with each team going on runs and each team committing turnovers.

“I think tonight was a well-deserved win and our team really fought hard for it,” Ervin said. “We all just played together really well and wanted this one bad.”

Ervin scored the first five points for Emmaus and the Hornets led 10-3 midway through the opening quarter, highlighted by a three-point play from Sierra Stevens.

Parkland rallied and scored 11 unanswered points, capped by an Aneri McGalla 3-pointer and led 14-12 after one.

The Hornets answered with eight consecutive points to begin the second, with Whitney and Ervin combining for the scoring, and actually had 10 straight spanning the end of the first to go on top 20-14. McGalla and Cheryllana Cunningham connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to cut their team’s deficit to 24-23 at halftime.

A Savannah Gonzalez layup just before the buzzer put Parkland team ahead 33-30 after three quarters.

Emmaus head coach Avon Mack talked to his team following the end of the quarter.

“Coach [Mack] always tells us to be good teammates and encourage each other and stay positive,” said Ervin. “We don’t want to get down on each other or ourselves. We just needed to slow the game down on both ends of the floor.”

Parkland went up 37-32 early in the fourth quarter, but Emmaus finished on a 15-6 run to take the game.

The Trojans trailed 43-41 with just over a minute to go when Cunningham tied it with a layup.

DeVita then hit a turnaround shot fading away from the basket to put the Hornets back on top 45-43 with 0:45 left. She iced it with two free-throws.

“I’m just happy for another game with each other,” Ervin said. “We want to win for our seniors. They’ve done a lot for our program. I was glad to be able to contribute to that tonight.”

DeVita recorded 14 points, including going 8-for-8 at the free-throw line.

Whitney tallied seven points. Stevens had three points and Eva Glover rounded out the scoring with two points.