A little over a week after claiming their second straight Sportsfest tournament championship, the Parkland boys basketball team was back to their winning ways in the Stellar Lehigh Valley summer league.

Seniors Justin Zajko and Nick Rindock helped fuel an offense that was able to pull away late and defeat a pesky Dieruff team to give the Huskies their first loss of the summer league, 55-45 at Cedar Beach last Tuesday night.

The Trojans never trailed in the game, but Dieruff kept it close throughout, trailing only by three midway through the second half. But Parkland stepped up the pressure on both sides of the ball, and used their experience and leadership to finish off the Huskies.

"We have five seniors that start," said Zajko. "We've been playing together for about seven years. Whenever we play Dieruff it's a good game."

The Huskies showed they belonged with some of the best of the Lehigh Valley by keeping up with the Trojans.

Parkland held a ten point lead midway through the first half with Zajko and Rindock scoring all by two points, but Dieruff stayed close trailing 25-19 at halftime.

It was a fast-paced, back-and-forth game with a lot of athleticism shown from each team.

"Dieruff's a pretty athletic team," noted Zajko. "Basically we were playing help and recover. It wasn't working too well for us because they were scoring. They were getting easy layups in the first half."

In the second half it was more of the same on the offensive end from Zajko and Rindock, and fellow senior Jimmy Hahn contributed seven of his nine points.

With the Trojans leading 42-39, a 7-0 run ended on a Hahn jumper gave Parkland a double digit lead which they held until the final whistle.

"We all know where we'll be on the court, and Jimmy [Hahn] will always find us," added Zajko.

Parkland can score in bunches and in a variety of ways, and this game showed that.

Zajko led the team with 23 points, Rindock tallied 22 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Nick Selvaggi also grabbed seven rebounds.