The Northampton boys basketball team clinched a berth in the EPC tournament with their 45-40 win over Allen Monday night in Pete Schneider Gymnasium.

Allen jumped out to a 17-12 after the first quarter as Leandro Pena scored 12 points including a jumper just before the horn sounded.

The Canaries extended the lead to 28-22 at the half. Isaac Harris kept the K-Kids in the game by scoring 17 of his game-high 24 in the first 16 minutes.

Allen scored on their first possession of the second half to make the lead 8 points. Over the next five and a half minutes the K-Kids held the Canaries scoreless while going on an 11-point run. Caden Reph scored in transition with 3:20 left in the third period to give Northampton a 31-30 lead, its first since early in the opening quarter. They headed to the final period up one, 35-34.

In the fourth quarter, the K-Kids leaned on their defense again, holding Allen to six points for the second consecutive period. Isaac Harris had a chase-down block at the 2-minute mark to deny the Canaries a layup. Jackson Fehnel drew a charge with under a minute to go. Harris and Tristan Pinnock each had a steal in the waning moments.

The Harris brothers each knocked down a pair of free throws in the last half minute of the game to seal the win.

After the game head coach Coy Stampone singled out Pinnock for his effort in slowing down Allen star guard Nate Ellis.

“He just gives it his all,” he said. “He’s our catalyst. At the end, we went man instead of match and I said to him, ‘You got Ellis.’ He does those things that some people don’t notice. Maybe not in the box score, but he does all the little things.”

Pinnock was the second-leading scorer for the Kids with 6 points and had 4 steals. Lucas Lesko had 5 points and 4 blocked shots. Isaiah Harris and Reph had 4 points each. Cooper King knocked down a pair of free throws.

Following their win over Whitehall on Tuesday, the team secured the sixth seed in the EPC tournament, setting up a showdown at Parkland on Friday in the quarterfinals. The Trojans have been the K-Kids’ kryptonite this season by winning their first meeting 58-37 and being the only team to beat Northampton during their 13-1 stretch to close out the regular season.

The winner of that game will play in the semifinals at the PPL Center on Monday night.