Northampton’s girls’ basketball team came out of a three-loss funk and rose above the challenge of facing last year’s Class 6A District XI runner-up on one day of practice to defeat Freedom, 54-38, on Monday night at Freedom.

“We played well tonight, and I told the girls that was a great win, but Wednesday’s going to be a little bit tougher because he’s probably going to play his five or six girls,” said Northampton coach Jeff Jacksits.

Monday was Freedom’s senior night and season opener when Coach Dean Reiman played not only his seniors but his entire varsity roster.

The K-Kids are scheduled to host the Patriots on Wednesday night, past Press deadlines.

“I feel like they pressured us well, and they were really good at going in to the basket on offense, and they got a lot of offensive rebounds,” said K-Kids guard Morgan Sterner. “I think they challenged our boxing out, so we really had to work on that throughout the night.”

But Sterner and the Kids challenged the Pates more.

“Our offense, we move a lot. It’s more of a motion, so sometimes it just leaves me open because they’re worried about other girls driving, and then there’s always the kick out,” said Sterner, who had four threes and a game-high 25 points.

Three pointers by Freedom’s Kailey Turpening and Jewel Levy closed a gap in the first quarter when the Kids led by just two points at the end of eight minutes, but seven quick points to open the second quarter by Sterner and Grace Lesko prompted a timeout by the Pates.

Turpening hit another three coming out of the timeout, but the K-Kids went on an 11-point run with points by Sterner, Lesko, and Taylor Kranzley as Northampton grabbed a 33-15 lead at halftime.

“Morgan was tough to stop. She was really dynamic tonight,” said Coach Reiman. “We tried to go zone toward the end of the first half because I just didn’t think we were ready to guard them man-to-man. They were kind of getting to the rim at will, and Morgan was making every shot, but at least in the zone we can kind of take one player away there.”

Freedom’s Elsa Martin hit a three pointer early in the third quarter followed by two buckets by Brenna Ortwein, but as fast as the momentum seemed to start to shift toward the Pates, the Kids brought it back with points by Lesko, Devyn Demchak, and Kylie Gilliard.

“We shot the ball well,” Jacksits said. “We were in a funk for 2 1/4 games. Easton, twice we didn’t shoot well. They’re a very good team. And Nazareth, our first quarter was horrendous. We were down 14, we lost by 12 or something, and had the game down to seven, but in the fourth quarter, we ran out of gas.”

The Kids’ record is 3-3 as of Feb. 8, having defeated Liberty twice.

“We’re just having a hard time getting the rhythm where you play, get a couple practices, play, get a couple practices, and now we’re supposed to play Wednesday, but it’s supposed to snow from Tuesday to Friday,” Jacksits said. “Some of the things we did defensively, we need to do better. They did a nice job at driving the ball. We didn’t move our feet and didn’t help sometimes. Those girls are talented- 3 (Ortwein) and 5 (Corrin Gill) and 10 (Turpening) are who you have to match up with, so we always put Morgan on Turpening because she’s their best shooter, and then we’ve just got to get tougher on the other two.”

After having played Freedom on Wednesday, Northampton will face Nazareth on Saturday, followed by Bethlehem Catholic later the following week.

“We might get a game in between Beca and Nazareth because we have a week off and then districts,” Jacksits said. “I thought it was a great decision that they went with having everybody get in to districts. In this chaotic season of play, not play, it’s great for the girls to get as many games as they possibly can, especially the seniors.”