Parkland’s boys basketball team almost always features players from the Trojans football team, and this year is no exception.
In fact, quarterback Finn Coen and receivers Nassim Adams, Blake Nassry and Jude Ruisch are all on the Trojans basketball roster.
But it was two guys who don’t play football, Tyler Beck and Javian Porter, who connected on a pass play in the final second that gave Parkland a stunning 53-52 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference win over visiting Whitehall Tuesday night.
Beck’s perfecly-thrown alley-oop pass to Porter was caught and put in the basket as time expired to give the Trojans an early-season highlight while adding heartbreak to a frustrating start for winless Whitehall.
“It was definitely an exciting play,” Porter said. “Coach drew it up for us, and we just had to execute. I ended up making a layup because he made a perfect pass.”
Whitehall took a 52-51 lead on a pair of Talon Dogmanits free throws with 4.7 seconds left. The Zephyrs had fouls to give and used them as Parkland worked the ball up the floor, setting up an inbounds pass in front of their bench on the left side of the basket with eight-tenths of a second left.
Trojans assistant Austin Beidelman helped to draw up the play.
“He draws things up before games, and we have things lined up for certain situations,” Parkland coach Eddie Ohlson. “We drew it up, and actually, [Portrer] he was more open the first time.”
But Beck’s first inbounds pass was blocked by Whitehall’s Cole Rozycki. It took two-tenths of a second off the clock. Beck’s second attempt came with 0:00.6 showing on the scoreboard, and this time he found Porter, who circled from left to right and leaped for the ball at the rim, and put it in all in one motion.
PARKLAND 53, WHITEHALL 52
Javian Porter scored off a Tyler Beck alley-oop pass at the buzzer. Exciting game. Crusher for the winless Zephyrs. pic.twitter.com/K5ZrEGilBQ
— Keith Groller (@KeithGroller) December 10, 2025
“[Beck] made a good pass, and it was a good play at the right time,” Ohlson said.
“Coach drew it up perfectly for us,” Beck said. “The first time it was wide open. So I knew the second time if they didn’t pick up on it, Javian is so athletic and he’d get up there and get it. I hope I can pull it off again if it comes down to that.”
Porter said, “I definitely had to jump high to catch it. It was an alley-oop kind of thing. It was just a great pass. I haven’t had a moment like that before, so it was definitely big for me.”
And, it was big for a Parkland team that entered the season with high expectations, but lost on opening night to Allen. The Trojans have won three games since that defeat but are a work-in-progress with both Pocono Mountain West and Northampton, last year’s EPC finalists and current unbeatens, coming into their gym in the next week.
“It’s good anytime you can get a league win over Whitehall because they’re always a tough team,” Ohlson said. “But there are things we need to work on and clean up for us to move forward. It has been an interesting start to the year. We’ve got guys who are banged up, guys who are out, guys who are coming back from football. We’re just trying to keep the boat afloat and going in the right direction. These guys have been good in practice and have positive attitudes. We’re not at our best right now, and we’re trying to identify things we need to work on, and we found a couple of those tonight.”
Porter and Nassry led Parkland with 16 points apiece, and Ruisch added 12. The Trojans were 18-for-38 from the field, 9-for-19 from 3-point range.
Whitehall fought back from an 18-9 deficit early in the second quarter, but couldn’t maintain a 38-30 advantage midway through the third quarter. An 11-0 Parkland run gave the home team a 44-40 lead in the first minute of the final period, but it went back-and-forth with six lead changes in the final four minutes.
Whitehall got 14 apiece from Jack Lloyd and Talon Dogmanits, while Tanner Dogmanits chipped in 12.
The Zephyrs, who have been hurt by poor foul shooting in starting 0-5, made 7 of 9 at the line at Parkland, and Talon Dogmanits was 6-for-7.
But Whitehall was hurt by 14 turnovers, eight in the second half, and suffered its fourth loss by seven points or less. The Zephyrs will try to bounce back at home, where they will play their next three games, starting with Stroudsburg Friday night.
Parkland, meanwhile, hosts Pocono Mountain West Friday night. The Trojans lost to the Panthers 61-48 last season and again in the A-Town Throwdown summer tournament semifinals in July.
“KJ Coles is scoring a lot of points for them right now and Rich [Williams] does a great job with that program,” Ohson said. “We look forward to the challenge and I know our guys will be ready.”
Parkland 53, Whitehall 52
Whitehall 9 – 19 – 12 – 12 — 52
Parkland 16 – 10 – 16 – 11 — 53
WHITEHALL (52)
Clifford Lowe 2-2 0-0 4, Jack Lloyd 6-9 0-0 14, Tanner Dogmanits 5-8 1-2 12, Seth Hoderewski 1-6 0-0 2, Talon Dogmanits 3-6 6-7 14, Cole Richards 0-1 0-0 0, Cole Rozycki 3-5 0-0 6, Roman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-37 7-9 52.
PARKLAND (53)
Zion Barrera 0-2 0-0 0, Ryan Kearney 0-3 0-0 0, Nassim Adams 1-1 4-4 7, Javian Porter 7-11 0-0 16, Marcus Temchatin 0-0 1-2 1, Blake Nassry 6-10 2-2 16, Tyler Beck 0-3 1-2 1, Jude Ruisch 4-8 0-0 12. Totals 18-38 8-10 53.
3-pointers: Whitehall (5-11) Talon Dogmanits 2, Lloyd 2, Tanner Dogmanits. Parkland (9-19): Ruisch 4, Nassry 2, Porter 2, Adams.
Rebounds: Whitehall 19 (Tanner Dogmanits 5); Parkland 35 (Nassry 10).
Assists: Whitehall 9 (Tanner Dogmanits 3); Parkland 13 (Nassry 4).
Turnovers: Whitehall 14, Parkland 9
Fouls: Whitehall 12, Parkland 16.
Other EPC boys basketball results
Allen 61, Emmaus 55: Tiheed Wise Jr. scored 22 points and the Canaries rallied from a 27-22 deficit to win at Emmaus and improve to 3-0. The Green Hornets fell to 1-5, 0-3 in the league despite 15 points by Jake Ross.
Liberty 74, Pleasant Valley 43: The Hurricanes improved to 4-1, 3-0 in the EPC with a road win. Quin Lucas-Bishop led Liberty with 18 points, while Jarrell Teague and Jake Pukszyn added 14 and 13, respectively. Pukszyn needs two points to reach 1,000 in his career and could get them Friday night against Northampton.
Nazareth 73, East Stroudsburg South 51: Logan Hahn and Gavin Kershner scored 14 apiece as the Blue Eagles improved to 3-0.
Stroudsburg 55, Easton 44: Tae El-Bassiouni scored 16 points to lead the Mounties to their third win in four games. Josh Walkiewicz tallied 13 for Easton (0-3, 0-2).
Northampton 73, East Stroudsburg North 51: The Konkrete Kids improved to 4-0 behind an offensive attack that saw Noah Walakovits score 18 points, with Leo Regec and Brady Simock adding 15 apiece. Brandon Bowen led North (1-3, 1-2) with 13.
Allentown Central Catholic 46, Dieruff 40: Central got 13 points from Cam Hines and 11 from Yariel Gonzalez to post a road win. The Vikings improved to 3-2, 2-0 in the league. The Huskies, who got 12 points apiece from Derwyn Deris and Elsir Gibson, fell to 2-2.
Postponement: Due to inclement weather in the Poconos, Wednesday’s scheduled game between Bethlehem Catholic and Pocono Mountain West has been moved to Jan. 3. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but was moved back a day due to President Trump’s visit to the Mount Airy Casino.
