Parkland came out firing recently against Whitehall, opening the game with 12 straight points, seven of which came from Maddie Siggins.

The Lady Zephyrs failed to fold and came back with an eight-point run of their own and by halftime, trailed by just four points. The second half, and in particular the fourth quarter, belonged to Whitehall as the Zephs caught up and then pulled away to hand the Lady Trojans a 36-28 setback.

Early on, Parkland (8-7 overall, 5-6 EPC) was right on target with every shot, including a pair of three-pointers by Siggins and Talia Zurinskas during the opening salvo of points. In the second quarter, the Lady Zephyrs started to chip away, and a three-pointer from Ella Laky, followed closely by a basket from Olivia Hines made it a 17-15 game.

Whitehall (4-10, 4-5) was not able to climb any closer and was trailing 21-17 at the close of the half. Even though the lead had been cut, nobody would have guessed how difficult it would become for Parkland to shoot in the second half.

“We can’t not score,” said coach Ed Ohlson. “We had 12 points in the first 10 minutes and only 16 the rest of the game. We just did not shoot well overall and give credit to them because they played well. We had open shots that we usually drain, and they didn’t go down tonight.”

Hines sparked the Zephyrs in the second half by scoring five points during a 7-0 run to open the third quarter. She hit a pair of foul shots to tie the game and then was fouled while nailing a close-range jumper and converted the free throw to put Whitehall up 24-21, its first lead of the night with 3:39 left in the third quarter.

The combination of a struggling offense and strong Whitehall defense held Parkland to just three points in the game’s final eight minutes while Laky rattled off seven straight points during a fourth quarter 9-0 burst to put the game away.

Zurinskas, who had seven first-half points in the game, was held scoreless in the second half, while Siggins netted just one point over the final 16 minutes and 10 points in the game. Zoe Wilkinson scored six of Parkland’s seven points in the second half and finished the night with a total of eight in the game.

“Our defense wasn’t horrible and again, you have to give Whitehall credit. Some of it though, our girls must put on their shoulders and then figure out how to make us a better team. We simply have to play better because the season is starting to wind down.” said Ohlson. “When you lose a game by a few points to a Beca (10-3, 9-0) or somebody like that, you feel like you are getting closer, but we have to win these other games, or we just will not be as good of a team as we can be.”

Parkland had a quick turnaround to face Easton (14-0, 9-0) Saturday afternoon and came out on the wrong end of a 46-23 battle. The loss to Whitehall was Parkland’s third straight and the Trojans have a hectic week of games on the way.

Over the next week, the Parkland plays Allen (0-16, 0-11), Pocono Mountain East (3-10, 2-8) and Northampton (13-3, 9-1), who the Trojans fell to in the season opener by a score of 42-34.

With teams in the stretch run of the season, the field of eight teams for the East Penn Conference Tournament is starting to take shape. The top five teams (Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Northampton, Central Catholic and Pocono Mountain West) seem to be secured. From there, seven teams all have eyes on the final three spots. As of Monday evening, Emmaus (7-4), Nazareth (6-4) and East Stroudsburg South (5-4) were in position to take the final three playoff spots, but Freedom and Parkland both at 5-5 and Whitehall (4-5) and Pleasant Valley (5-7) are still hanging around. Parkland has games remaining against Central Catholic, Northampton, Emmaus and the season finale against Whitehall.