The Lady Hornets have an invitation to the District 11 tournament in hand and are now fighting for an elusive spot in the East Penn Conference playoffs, somewhere that they have never been before.

Since the formation of the EPC in 2013, Emmaus has failed to qualify for the league’s postseason tournament each season, leaving the Hornets as one of just two teams with that distinction. Nobody is making that invitation easy to come by as the season heads toward the end of the schedule.

On Saturday, Parkland (13-7 overall, 10-5 EPC) was the obstacle to the EPC playoffs, and although Emmaus (12-10, 8-8) played one of its better overall games of the season, the Lady Trojans defended their home court with a 41-39 win.

The two teams battled throughout the game, with the lead changing hands a total of 15 times. Neither team led by more than four points until Parkland went up 41-36 with 12 seconds left in regulation. Senior Sarah Hoch led Emmaus with 11 points and junior Paige Inman chipped in with 10 points in the game.

Hoch opened the game hitting from all angles to score the first eight points of the game for Emmaus. As Parkland shifted its defensive focus to Hoch in the second quarter, it was Inman that hit a big three-pointer with 4:36 left in the quarter to regain the lead for Emmaus at 21-19 after the Trojans had rallied from a 15-11 deficit. By halftime, Parkland was up 23-22.

“At halftime we talked about staying within what we wanted to do and not venturing away from the plan offensively or defensively,” said Emmaus head coach Kelsey Gallagher. “We wanted to keep doing things the way we wanted to do them and stay disciplined, and the girls did an excellent job of doing that.”

In the second half, the attention turned to senior Grace Oglesbee, who helped propel the Lady Hornets to a 31-28 lead by the end of the third quarter. In the quarter, Oglesbee scored four points, but more importantly, became a force on the boards, pulling down five rebounds, three of which came on the offensive end and led to six Emmaus points.

“Grace has such a phenomenal presence on the court,” said Gallagher. “Realistically, she is probably a small forward to stretch forward at the most, but she has been asked to step up into the big role and be our five, which puts her up against the other team’s biggest girls. She doesn’t back down from the challenge and at times, she makes it hard to take her out of the game for a rest.”

Parkland took the lead for good with 2:26 left to play when senior Zoe Wilkinson scored and then followed that basket with another on the next possession to make it 39-36. Talia Zurinskas hit a pair of foul shots with 12 seconds left, and Emmaus’ Taylor Griffith nailed a three-pointer just ahead of the buzzer to make it 41-39, but time ran out for Emmaus to find a way back.

One season-long issue for the Lady Hornets has been foul shooting, but they seem to have taken that issue off the books. Emmaus went 7-for-10 from the foul line against Parkland and in their last four games have hit on 77 percent (40-for-52) of their freebies.

“We have worked really hard to improve on that and I have to hand it to the girls because they have done an excellent job in fixing that and it has really shown lately,” said Gallagher. “That was a key for us today and it nearly helped lead us to a win against a good team, so it shows how important that is.”

Central Catholic (17-4, 12-3) put up another roadblock in the season finale Monday night when it beat Emmaus 38-33 behind a game-high 20 points from Julia Roth.

Emmaus spread out its scoring with Inman and Griffith both finishing with eight against the Vikettes, while Oglesbee and Mya Cooper had six apiece. A win against either Parkland or Central Catholic would have wrapped up a playoff spot for the Lady Hornets, but they will now have to wait to see what happens in other games this week.

With East Stroudsburg South (8-7), Whitehall (7-8), Pleasant Valley (7-8) and Freedom (7-8) all having one EPC game remaining, those teams plus Emmaus could all finish the season with an 8-8 conference record. Technically, the final spot will belong to either Emmaus or East Stroudsburg South. Easton (14-0) plays at East Stroudsburg South and if the Cavaliers can find a way to knock off the undefeated Red Rovers, they would leapfrog over Emmaus and into the final EPC playoff spot, leaving Emmaus with nothing to do but wait for districts.

An East Stroudsburg South loss would put Emmaus into the final spot thanks to having the best head-to-head record of the five teams tied for the final playoff spot. No matter who enters the playoffs as the number-eight seed in the conference, they will get the unenviable task of playing at Easton, a team that has rolled through the regular season.