The Parkland High School boys basketball team has enjoyed a successful offseason. The Trojans won 10 of their 12 games during the Lehigh Valley summer regular season and also won the Cedar Beach ‘Bash at the Beach’ major tournament in late June.

The positive momentum continued as Parkland battled to a two-point, double-overtime victory, 43-41 over Bethlehem Catholic last Thursday evening in its summer league regular season finale.

“It’s been a great summer,” said assistant coach Eddie Ohlson. “The guys have all stepped up in a variety of ways in different games throughout. This game shows you that and it just kind of sums up how the summer has gone for us. We’re proud of them for how they’ve played and we want to continue to keep this going.”

Each team led in the waning seconds of regulation and in the opening overtime period in a back-and-forth, low-scoring affair. The Trojans were ahead late in the second overtime and had to connect from the free-throw line to hold on for the victory.

“It was good to see their poise and energy in the end to hold on,” Ohlson said. “It’s situations like the ones we saw tonight that are important and that we want to see them succeed at during the actual varsity season in the winter.”

Will Meeker continued his tear this summer, leading the way with a game-high 18 points. Meeker, along with Nick Coval have been the leaders for Parkland this summer and ones that the coaching staff have singled out.

“Will and Nick have really stepped up for us this summer,” said Ohlson. “They both started a lot of games for us last season so we knew they had what it took to take the next step. We look for them to be vocal leaders and lead by example for the rest of the guys. They have both shown their talent scoring the ball, but also on the defensive side of the ball as well.”

The Trojans went 10-2 during the regular season and earned the two seed for the summer league playoffs, which take place this week. They have a bye into the semifinals of the six-team format and will take on the highest remaining seed out of the winners of Wednesday’s No. 3 Reading vs. No. 6 Becahi or No. 4 Northampton against No. 5 Allen. Semifinals are slated for Thursday with finals on Friday.