Nick Coval has done a lot in his high school basketball career, but Monday’s game against Emmaus was the first time the Trojan senior and reigning East Penn Conference MVP ever got in real foul trouble during a game.

Playing without Coval for over 11 minutes of the first half, the Trojans’ got big contributions up and down the line up to keep the game close and pull away late for a 50-42 win over Emmaus.

“These are the type of games where you need to grind out a win and I thought our guys did a good job and did enough,” said Parkland head coach Eddie Ohlson. “I really compliment Nick. He hung in there. He struggled early with foul trouble and struggled shooting a little bit. Then he hit a huge shot late in the game that kind of got us over the edge. “

Coval picked up his third foul with 3:40 left in the first quarter and sat nearly the remainder of the first half. In his absence, Blake Nassry and Blake Borcoman came off the bench to nail one three-pointer each. The Parkland bench helped keep the Hornets from pulling away while Coval was out. The Trojans went to halftime down 25-22.

“The guys stepped up,” said Coval. “Blake Borcoman made a huge three in his first minutes all year. Blake Nassry and Nas Adams played well. Going forward that’s going to help us a lot. The more depth we have the better we’re going to be.”

With Coval back in the second half, Parkland tightened its defense and held Emmaus to just six third-quarter points to take a 33-31 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But the Hornets (9-3 overall; 6-2 EPC) went on an 8-3 run to start the fourth and were leading 39-38 when Coval hit a shot that put his team ahead for good.

Ohlson drew up a play in the huddle and Coval got open for a three-pointer that gave his team a 41-39 with 2:01 left in the game.

“The Iverson cut to the elevator screen,” Coval described. “It was a great play. They knew the Iverson cut was coming. They didn’t think the elevator screen was coming. It was great execution by us and luckily I made the shot.”

After going 0-for-4 from the foul line in the first half, Parkland made eight of 10 attempts over the final 1:41 of the game.

Coval scored a game-high 22 points. Jayden Thomas added eight points while going 6-for-8 from the foul line.

“They’re a good team,” Coval said of Emmaus. “We’re always going to battle with them. It’s a great win for us, but at the same time it’s just the 11th game of 22 so we’re just taking it one game at a time.”

Parkland held Emmaus’ top scorer, Will Barber, to 20 points in the game. The senior came into the contest needing 24 points to reach 1,000 for his career.

“We knew he’s going to score some points, but we knew if we made him force those points we’d give ourselves a shot,” said Ohlson. “I thought we pulled it together late defensively, not only getting stops but also getting rebounds.”

Zaire Smaltz led Parkland with nine rebounds in the win.

The win was the Trojans’ first against Emmaus since 2021. The Hornets swept the Trojans in two regular season meetings each of the past two seasons and the teams have not met in the playoffs in the past three seasons.

Parkland (9-3 overall; 8-0 EPC) stayed unbeaten in the league with the win.

“Our league is very difficult this year,” said Ohlson. “We’re unbeaten, but we’re tested. There’s a lot of teams that played really well against us. I wouldn’t say we’ve played our best basketball yet.”

In other recent games, Parkland beat East Stroudsburg South 57-32 last Thursday. Parkland led from start to finish up north and defeat East Stroudsburg South 57-32 last Thursday night and then followed that up four nights later by taking down rival Emmaus 51-42 at home this past Tuesday night in a matchup of the top two teams in the division.

Coval matched his output against Emmaus with a game-high 22 points against the Cavaliers. He also added five rebounds and three assists. Smaltz scored 18 points and brought in nine rebounds. Thomas contributed seven points and five assists.