The Northwestern boys’ basketball team won its opening game of the SportsFest A-Town Throwdown tournament last week. And the team was on its way to a second win on Saturday, a victory that would have at least kept the Tigers’ hopes of a Sunday berth alive.

Instead, it was their kryptonite that not only cost the Tigers Saturday’s game against Morris Hills, but also ended any shot of an appearance on the final day.

Northwestern, which led 16-14 against Morris Hills in the first half, saw that lead shrink to a 24-16 deficit minutes later.

The Tigers couldn’t respond, falling 40-38, and then dropping their final game at Cedar Beach against eventual finalist Parkland.

“There’s times where we are going to go through scoring droughts,” head coach Billy Hallman said. “Sam [Yadush] is going to get his. On Thursday night, Devon Thomas [20 points against Susquehanna] was able to be effective offensively, but it’s going to have to be a rotation of guys.

“We don’t have another guy that is going to constantly get some for us.”

During that drought, Northwestern could not stop the bleeding until it was too late.

Northwestern regained the ball with under 30 seconds to play and trailing by just a bucket, but Yadush’s drive to the basket resulted in a no call. Morris Hills was able to run out the final seconds.

And then a seemingly impossible task lied ahead, as the Tigers needed to lace up the sneakers on an hour’s rest to face a Parkland team that would eventually make it to the championship game. The Trojans’ offense was too much to handle, as Northwestern came up short 61-39.

“We played really well [against Susquehanna],” Hallman said. “We took care of the ball. We attacked the rim. We got to the free throw line and we made them.

“We played really good defense against Susquehanna. It was a tough team. That was another thing [against Morris Hills]; we must have missed eight or nine free throws.”

The Tigers opened the tournament with a solid 54-46 win over Susquehanna, and they were a possession or two away from going 2-1.

For a largely inexperienced team with no senior leadership on the court this summer, Hallman was pleased with how his team competed over the weekend.

“We are young,” Hallman said. “Yeah we get three starters back, but after that there is not a lot of experience. And even those starters are sophomores and juniors. We don’t have a single senior that is with us right now.”

The Tigers, who are playing once a week this season in the Panther Valley Summer League, were also missing two of their bigger post players (Connor Snyder and Derek Holmes) that would have helped in the rebounding department, particularly against Morris Hills and Parkland. That could have made the difference in going 2-1, rather than 1-2.

“Tonight we were missing a couple of kids,” Hallman said. “Two of our bigger kids, which I think hurt us rebounding-wise. They compete and rebound. But for the most part we’ve had everyone.”

Chambersburg defeated Parkland for the boys’ championship.

Yadush, an incoming junior guard, won the tournament’s three-point shootout for the third straight year.