A hot start to their Lehigh Valley summer league season carried over into the biggest high school basketball weekend of the summer. The Parkland boys basketball team went undefeated, winning six straight at the Stellar Catch A Rising Star Tournament to take the title last weekend at Cedar Beach park in Allentown.

After beating Catasauqua to open up play on Friday evening, the Trojans took down Faith Christian on Saturday afternoon and only had to play two games the first three days. But it was a much longer Sunday, as is the case when a team is winning.

In the morning, Parkland defeated Trinity. An hour later it beat rival Emmaus. Later in the evening, the Trojans came out on the winning end against the hometown favorite Allen Canaries. And in the final, the Trojans were victorious over Cedar Crest.

"The key to this was that the kids just love playing the game," said head coach Andy Stephens. "It wasn't hard playing a lot of games in one day, because they just want to keep playing."

For much of the tournament, Parkland was forced to play without some of its top performers. With Sam Iorio and Kyle Stout playing in the Reebok Classic in Philadelphia, and Devante Cross missing some games, Stephens had to mix and match a small bench for nearly half of his team's games.

With the leadership from seniors Justin Jones and Kevin Delourie, Parkland never missed a beat.

"The bench really stepped up," said Stephens. "They were a crucial part to our wins. They really gave us some good minutes. Justin [Jones] and Kevin [Delourie] showed a lot of confidence out there, and played a lot of minutes."

In games where Iorio, Stout and Cross were unavailable, guys like unavailable, guys like Jones and Delourie, along with Kenny Yeboah and Jack Dreisbach, all stepped up and gave valuable contributions.

Yeboah took home the tournament's MVP award with his stellar play. Stephens said that Yeboah has 'untapped potential' and is very coachable.

Iorio and Jones also took home some hardware. Iorio was named to the All-Tournament team, and Jones was voted sixth-man.

Stout finished with a game-high 16 points in the final win over Cedar Crest. Cross tallied 12 and Iorio added 11.

Parkland will now look to win their its consecutive Sportsfest tournament, beginning Thursday night against Notre Dame Green Pond.

The Trojans will also square off against Warren Hills and Octorara on Saturday. Next week Stellar Summer League play resumes as Parkland is undefeated in league play.