Incoming-junior Robbie Seyfried can be looked at as the wildcard for the Northwestern boys basketball team.

While Parker Jones and Brady Mengel are the only two returning Tigers that saw significant varsity court time last year, head coach Billy Hallman expects a lot out of his underclassmen heading into this year, but maybe no one more than Seyfried.

Seyfried responded with arguably his best game of the summer, tallying 17 points in Northwestern's 62-59 win against Dieruff on Saturday at SportsFest's A-Town Throwdown Tournament. The Tigers, who went 1-2 in the tournament, suffered defeats to Reading and Stroudsburg.

Saturday's final pool game against the Huskies was Northwestern's best performance of the summer, using the transition game to their advantage in getting many fast-break opportunities.

"That was probably the best we've played in a really long time," Seyfried said. "We shared the ball really well I thought. We made good passes when we needed to.

"We lost by a lot to Reading," Seyfried said, "but we were just getting better after every game. We really played well [against Dieruff]."

It was no question that was the best performance of Seyfried's summer, too.

"This is definitely the best I've played," Seyfried said. "I was just getting up and down the floor."

In a game in which the largest lead was nine points, the constant of the game was Northwestern's ability to race out in transition for easy layups. The Tigers, after leading 22-14 in the first half, took a two-point lead into intermission.

It wasn't until the final minutes when a team separated itself, as Northwestern led 60-51 late. But Dieruff responded with eight straight to make it a 60-59 Tiger lead in the final seconds. Jones was able to hit two clutch free throws late in the game, however, to ice the win.

The Tigers credit playing a ton of basketball over the summer as a key part of their growing camaraderie.

In addition to the two tournaments (Stellar and SportsFest) and the Stellar Construction Summer League, the Tigers also benefited from a trip down the east coast a few weeks ago.

"We've been having open gyms two or three times a week," Seyfried said. "We've been working hard in the summer league games.

"We played in some tournaments. We went to a camp in West Virginia that really helped the team bond and get all of the guys to know each other."

For Seyfried, he's working on his confidence above everything else in preparation for an increased varsity role.

"[I'm working on] my confidence mainly," Seyfried said. "Normally I come out and play a little scared sometimes. But after the Reading game, I told myself I wasn't going to come out scared anymore and play as hard as I can."

The Tigers lost to Reading (79-51) to open the tournament, followed by a 44-37 defeat to Stroudsburg early on Saturday afternoon.