Coming into the East Penn Conference playoffs as the eighth and final seed in the tournament, Emmaus was a longshot to reach last Thursday’s title game at the PPL Center.

The Hornets, which entered the postseason having won eight of their final nine regular season games, defied the odds by beating top seed Bethlehem Catholic in the first round. They followed that win a win over No. 5 Liberty, 59-56, in last Wednesday’s semifinals at the PPL Center to earn the right to return there for Thursday’s league title game against No. 2 seed Parkland.

The Trojans, led by league tournament MVP Madi Siggins, took a 10-point lead in the first quarter and never let it get smaller than five points throughout the game en route to a 55-35 win and their first league title since winning the Lehigh Valley Conference crown in 2006.

“Hats off to Parkland,” said Emmaus head coach Kelsey Gallagher. “They’re a good team. Our kids played hard until the final buzzer.

“This is going to hurt, and rightfully so. We take this and we learn from this and we get better at our next practice. Maybe we see Parkland again in a couple weeks.”

Emmaus (15-9) moves on to the District 11 Class 6A tournament as the No. 5 seed and will travel to Pleasant Valley to face No. 4 Pocono Mountain West (15-8) Friday night for a quarterfinal round game.

“We have a lot of basketball left,” said Gallagher. “We’re in quarterfinals next Friday. If we take care of that we get another basketball game.”

A win in the quarterfinals would actually earn the team two more games. With Class 6A sending three teams to the state playoffs, the losing teams from next Tuesday’s semifinal games will play for third place and a berth into the state tournament. A win in semifinals punches a team’s ticket not only to the title game, but also to the state tournament.

In the title league title game, Parkland built a 17-7 lead in the game’s first six minutes, but the Hornets had it trimmed to 23-18 after a Mya Cooper basket with 2:53 left in the second quarter.

Parkland (23-2) made two three-pointers in the final minutes of the quarter, including Siggins’ second of the quarter, to get the lead back to nine points before a pair of free throws from Cooper made it 29-22 at halftime.

Siggins scored 14 of her game-high 22 points in the middle quarters as Parkland never let its lead get smaller than eight points in the third period before pulling away in the fourth.

Siggins, a senior headed to East Stroudsburg University, also pulled down 10 rebounds, had two steals and blocked a shot. Teammate Talia Zurinskas added 15 points for Parkland, which made 13 of 14 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

The night before competing in the league championship, Emmaus beat Liberty behind a 22-popint effort from freshman Kayla Snyder, while teammates Cassandra Doemling (12 points), Cooper (11) and Gabby DeVita (9) contributed to the balanced scoring in the semifinal, which marked the Hornets’ 11th win in 12 games.

“We won 10 of the last 12 games,” Gallagher said after the title game loss. “Definitely peaking in the right direction at the right time. Our kids believe and trust in each other and that’s why we’re able to get the wins and be in a position where we are now where we’re playing for a championship.”

The Hornets have a team led by four seniors in Cooper, Taylor Griffith, Julia Adams and Alexis Krum. The team also has talented young players like Snyder and DeVita, a sophomore, and has relied heavily on their scoring this season.

“Mya and Taylor have been 2-3 year starters for us,” said Gallagher. “Being able to have a season like we’re having right now after where this program has been a couple years ago, I’m proud of them and proud of what they were able to do for this program.

“I think the future looks really bright. Hopefully we continue to build off what we’ve been building on and the future does look good for Emmaus.”