The Parkland boys basketball team has been in this position before. Last year, coming off an impressive SportsFest title, the Trojans were riding high into the Lehigh Valley Stellar Summer Basketball League playoffs only to be beaten by rival Emmaus.

This year, Parkland was once again victorious at SportsFest and dominated summer league play by going 10-1 and capturing the No. 2 seed in the Stellar playoffs.

This time around, the Trojans wanted to prove their worth and keep playing through the summer time, especially with five seniors on the roster.

"I think we've actually lost the last two years in the first round," said senior point guard Jimmy Hahn. "It was funny because last year we did all of that work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and winning SportsFest, and lose in the first round. I wanted to come out and win that first game this year."

Leading 41-39 with less than five minutes to go, Parkland used an 8-1 run to pull out a 50-40 win over Bethlehem Catholic Tuesday night at Cedar Beach and advance to the semifinal round.

"I know when we play our game we can beat good teams," said Hahn. "We played Becahi twice this year already. We came out and got the job done. And hopefully we can keep this going now."

Hahn said that as a senior he didn't want to play his last game on the Cedar Beach courts Tuesday night. He came out and scored the first five points of the game, as the teams then traded baskets early on.

Becahi held a slim lead for most of the first half until Parkland took the lead for good on a Nick Rindock basket and foul with under two minutes left. The Trojans took a 23-20 lead at halftime.

"I wanted us to come out and get a strong start," said Hahn. "My teammates got me the ball early and I was able to hit some shots. We weren't hitting too many outside shots, but once we could get out in the open and fast break we were able to pull away a little bit. You could see a little fire in our stomachs."

Parkland showed that fire in the second half, bursting out to a double-digit lead midway through. But Becahi used a couple turnovers and some inside-outside play from its guards and center to cut the Trojans lead to two at 41-39 with under five minutes remaining.

Hahn facilitated an 8-1 run with Rindock (9 points), Justin Zajko (7 points), and Nick Selvaggi (6 points) on the receiving end of some easy looks to pull out the victory. The Trojans also got baskets from Devante Cross (9 points), Jack Dreisbach (6 points), and Kevin Delourie (2 points). It was a lower scoring game that Parkland is used to, but the Trojans' defense picked up when it had to.

"We just came off of team camp last weekend so we were a little tired," Hahn stated. "I think you can see that a little bit. If we're not scoring a lot, we have to make sure our defense starts our offense. Our rebounds lead to easy baskets. When we only score 20 points in the first half it's usually not a good thing, but our defense stepped up."