Head coach Billy Hallman lost both scoring and leadership from last year’s Northwestern boys basketball team that nearly made the district tournament. So, the summer has been a transition period for both those areas for the upcoming season.

Northwestern competed in the inaugural Cedar Beach Basketball Showcase last weekend, which essentially replaced the Stellar Construction tournament in recent years. His Tigers team may have had a quick exit with two losses, but he was pleased with the way they competed against two East Penn Conference teams.

After falling to Whitehall last Thursday, the first day of the tournament, Northwestern was bumped into the consolation bracket. And its run in the tournament came to an end two days later via a defeat to Emmaus’s B team.

“I felt we competed hard against both Whitehall and Emmaus,” Hallman said. “We enjoy playing in the summer tournaments to play different teams, [and] to get out of our comfort zone.

“With only three guys returning with any experience, we are asking a lot of guys to step into major roles. There’s no better place to get your feet wet than in these tournaments.”

Robbie Seyfriend was the Tigers’ leading scorer last winter, but has since graduated. And so has Trevor Cunningham, a three-sport athlete who provided plenty of leadership in the locker room and on the hardwood. Those two led a group of seniors who will be tough to replace, but not impossible.

Sam Yadush, Luke Hallman and Deven Bollinger return to the starting lineup after successful winters and summer seasons that have shown plenty of promise. Bollinger is an athletic forward who figures to give the Tigers a scoring threat, while Yadush will continue to run the point and Hallman can score both inside and outside.

“We lost a lot of scoring with Robbie Seyfried graduating, and we lost our leadership with Trevor Cunningham graduating,” Hallman said. “Our guys are getting more and more comfortable with their roles. We played much better and with more confidence in the second game, and I believe we will get better with each game we play.

“We are very young. We do return three starters, but after those three, Sam Seyfried is the only other guy we have with experience. We are excited with the potential of this group, but we realize we’ll have some growing pains.”

Defensively, Billy Hallman hopes his team can thrive on that end of the court to cover up some of its deficiencies offensively at times. They’ve been able to do that throughout the summer, which includes play in the Panther Valley Summer League.

“Defensively in both games we really played well,” Hallman said. “Our guys have bought into our defensive philosophy, and understand when we are struggling to score our defense will keep us in the game. In both games we struggled to find points.”

Berks Catholic defeated Arch Bishop Carroll for the boys’ championship on Sunday evening. The Northwestern girls did not participate in the tournament. University City defeated Freedom for the girls’ crown.