The Parkland girls basketball team continued to defy expectations as it came back from down 19-2 against Northampton to win 30-29 and capture its first District 11 title since 2014.
In a way, the championship game was a microcosm of the regular season. On Jan. 22, the Trojans were 8-7 and had just lost to a Whitehall squad that finished the year 7-15.
Senior Zoe Wilkinson spoke about how the team turned things around during the last third of the season.
“We were on the downhill for a little bit, losing, getting our heads down,” she said. “And we had this one meeting where all the seniors came together and said, ‘How do we get this team out of a hole?’ And we came up with a list and we kept saying it over and over again: positivity, being 100% percent all the time, and high fives.”
The regular season ended with six straight wins and the comeback against Northampton started with a six-point run to close the first half of the game. Mo Olenwine hit a three-pointer with three minutes before halftime to get the ball rolling and enable the Trojans to go into the locker room down 19-8.
Trojan head coach Ed Ohlson talked about the team’s mindset at the break.
“When I went in at halftime, they were saying to each other, ‘We’re only down 11. We got this. We can do this.,’” he said. “So when you have that belief in the locker room before the coach even gets there, that’s a pretty good thing.”
A four-point Northampton run to start the second half threatened to derail the Parkland comeback, but the next 10 points went into the Trojans’ side of the ledger and battle was truly on. The score stood at 27-20 as the teams headed to the final quarter.
Talia Zurinskas cut the margin to four points on the first possession of the final period with a drive to the hoop that led to a field goal and a free throw. Northampton pushed the lead back to six points with 6:20 to go in the game, but those were the final points the K-Kids scored.
From the 4:23 mark on, the score stayed at 29-27 until Olenwine hit a dagger three that gave Parkland its first lead of the game with 43 seconds left. The Trojans survived a pair of Northampton possessions and when the final shot glanced harmlessly of the rim, the celebration commenced.
“I can’t wait to see that banner in our gym saying 2022 district champions,” said Wilkinson. “I’ll never forget this. It’s amazing.”