The Parkland High School boys basketball team finished off the second half of back-to-back nights of games, taking down Pocono Mountain East last Wednesday night in a makeup game. That game followed a victory the night before, last Tuesday night over Liberty as the Trojans went into the Christmas break undefeated at 5-0 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

In its latest game, this past Tuesday night, Parkland fell in a nonconference game against Devon Prep in the Reading Holiday Tournament at Reading High School’s Geigle Complex. The Trojans overall record fell to 5-2.

Last week against the Cardinals, the Trojans took control of the game in the second quarter when they had a nine-point lead (18-9) after the opening quarter jump to a 14-point advantage (32-18) at halftime. Parkland stayed on top the rest of the way and continued to push forward offensively in finishing it off 62-41.

Junior Nick Coval finished with a game-high 31 points, 17 of which came in the second half. Joey Gerbasio also had a big second half and tallied double figures in scoring with 14 points, nine coming in the third and fourth quarters. Matt Ray recorded eight points. Zaire Smaltz contributed four points. Luke Spang had three points and Owen Rodgers added two to round out the scoring.

Against Devon Prep, Parkland went down early by nine (22-13) after the opening frame and then went into halftime behind by 16 (37-21). Prep kept its foot on the gas the rest of the way and had its lead climb to 24 in the third quarter on its way to the opening game victory in the tournament.

Coval led the way with a game-high 26 points. Gerbasio also reached double digits and had 14. Blake Bednar totaled five points.

Parkland concluded the Reading Tournament against Central Dauphin. The Trojans return to EPC play when they travel to take on Central Catholic next Tuesday night.