Unlike three weeks before at the Cedar Beach Bash Showcase tournament, the Parkland girls basketball team had mostly a full roster last weekend at the SportsFest A-town Throwdown tournament at Cedar Beach Park.

That depth in the lineup propelled the Trojans to win four of their five games and advance to Sunday’s playoff bracket before falling to eventual champion Bethlehem Catholic in the quarterfinal round.

“It was nice to see the girls get challenged in different ways, and be able to answer those challenges,” said Parkland head coach Wes Spence. “We do everything the same during the summer. We just want to get better. We played a lot of close games, which was good for them.

“We also saw a lot of different looks both on offense and on defense, so they had to adapt to different formations. The exposure was great.”

Parkland had two close calls and an easier one in the three games played during pool play.

The Trojans edged Jim Thorpe 48-41 in their opening game on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning, they held on to beat Northern Lehigh 47-43. A few hours later, they had a much easier game, taking care of Emmaus’ B team 53-13 to win Group B of the 32-team field.

“You always want to win your group,” said Spence. “But you also want the girls to be battled-tested, and they were.”

On Sunday morning in the first round of the playoff bracket, Parkland was able to take some revenge on an opponent that got the better of the Trojans at the Cedar Beach Bash. They took an early lead, and held onto it, defeating Freedom 35-29.

In the quarterfinals, Parkland met its match in a hot team. Becahi was also 3-0 in the pool play, winning by an average of 25 points.

The Hawks jumped out in front by double-digits early, and had little trouble in keeping the lead on their way to a 40-15 victory in the quarterfinal round.

“They have a great team over there,” Spence said. “They made it tough for us. But I was able to get in everybody and see what they had, and that’s what it’s about.

“We want to play different teams that present different challenges, things that you can’t replicate at practice or in open gyms. This will help us get better for the winter season.”