Two weeks after a number of area basketball teams competed in the first major tournament of the summer, the Cedar Beach Bash at the Beach, they hit the outdoor courts for the second tournament, the Allentown Throwdown at Cedar Beach park in Allentown. It was played outdoors primarily, while the first tournament was all indoors at Whitehall High School or Elementary School.

The A-town Throwdown ran from Thursday to Sunday with teams playing in pool games to qualify for a postseason type tournament. Games on Thursday and Saturday were able to be played at Cedar Beach, but Friday and Sunday were moved indoors to Executive Education Charter’s gymnasium due to rain.

The Parkland High School boys and girls teams had successful weekends, both advancing out of their groups in pool play and earning spots in the semifinal round of the playoffs before losing.

Two weekends before, the Trojan boys took home the championship at the Bash at the Beach. They also won the Lehigh Valley summer league title this past Friday night while the Throwdown was going on. They finished the year 11-2 overall and was the top seed and won via forfeit over Northampton, which had to play a game around the same time in the Throwdown tournament.

“Summertime is always busy and interesting to see what we have, playing in different tournaments and leagues,” said head coach Eddie Ohlson. “We’ve got some good momentum playing in showcases and winning the Bash tournament. Our guys are playing well, playing together and it helps with a lot of the same guys back from last year. They have fun playing together and it’s showing.”

The Trojans went 3-0 in pool play. They defeated Southern Lehigh 44-29 on opening night Thursday and then beat Central Dauphin East 45-30 Saturday morning and then Glen Falls from New York on Saturday night. Following the final game that night, Alex Barrera won the three-point shooting contest and TJ Lawrence took home the slam dunk contest.

“We played against some really quality teams and found different ways to win,” Ohlson said. “There were games maybe we didn’t shoot well, but our defense stepped up. Then other games we found ways to score. The guys just took care of business when they had to.”

Sunday in the quarterfinal round, Parkland ended up taking on the Kids and hung on for a 35-33 overtime victory. In the semifinals, however, the Trojans met their match and fell just short 48-47 to Pocono Mountain West.

The JV team advanced to the championship game, but lost to Emmaus.

On the girls side, Parkland went 2-0 in pool play, defeating Reading 22-17 on Friday night and then got the better of Notre Dame Green Pond on Saturday afternoon to advance to Sunday’s playoffs.

The Trojans recorded a double-digit quarterfinal round win over Executive Education 34-24, but then had their run end in the semifinals against eventual champion, Audenried.