It had been seven years since the Parkland High School boys basketball team had won a state playoff game. The Trojans put that in the past and put the pedal to the medal in dispatching of West Chester Henderson, District One’s 10th-place team, last Saturday afternoon in the PIAA Class 6A first round at Parkland High School, 56-39.

Parkland improved to 19-9 overall and won its first state playoff game since defeating Ridley in the second round of the 2016 4A tournament. The Trojans had lost three previous first-round games since then.

The Trojans jumped ahead early Saturday and led 11-3 after the opening quarter . They outscored the Warriors 16-11 in the second quarter to take a 27-14 lead at halftime and still led by double figures following the third quarter, 40-27.

West Chester Henderson cut its deficit into single digits early in the fourth quarter and trailed just 40-33 with 7:25 left.

Parkland held on to its lead by hitting shots from beyond the arc and connecting on free throws. Nick Coval led the way with a game-high 22 points. Coval and Luke Spang, who finished with six points, both hit two 3-pointers. Robbie Ruisch tallied 12 points, including three 3-pointers. Joey Gerbasio and Zaire Smaltz each contributed seven points and Matt Ray rounded out the scoring with two points.

“I think we beat a really good team,” Parkland head coach Stephens said. “We watched a lot of their film and they’re explosive. We took them out of a lot of stuff early. Both No. 2 [Nyle Ralph-Beyer] and No. 5 [Connor Fleet] are really good players. Defensively we played really smart and getting off to a good start helped.

“We just have to get better at a couple of things because we’re in the state tournament and these teams are going to be really tough. There were a couple of plays there at the end we’d like to have back.”

Parkland advanced to the second round to take on District One’s 7th-place team, Garnet Valley on Wednesday night at the Geigle Complex in Reading.