The Northampton girls basketball team advanced to their second EPC title game in four years by beating Parkland 52-42 Tuesday night in the conference semifinals at the PPL Center in Allentown.

They will return to the PPL Center tonight at 6 p.m. to take on Bethlehem Catholic for the EPC title.

The K-Kids will be looking to claim their first league championship since winning the Mountain Valley Conference in 1998. A win would also jump the team over Easton for the top seed in the District XI 6A playoffs.

Northampton and Becahi met on Jan. 4 in Bethlehem, a 63-57 Golden Hawks win. Head Coach Jeff Jacksits recapped the earlier matchup.

“We were beating them for 3, 3-and-half-quarters,” he said. “But at the end their speed beat us. They’re a very quick team. They’re not very big, but they’re quick. If we can control their speed, we can play with them.”

Against Parkland, the K-Kids used a balanced attack with four players in double figures and a tenacious defense to avenge their only loss to a District XI 6A team this season.

They scored the first four points of the game and never trailed. They led by 8 at the half and built the lead to as much as 12 with three minutes to go in the third period. Parkland cut the deficit by scoring five-straight points from the free throw line as 14 of Trojans’ first 23 points came from the charity stripe.

The lead fluctuated between three and four points for most of the fourth quarter until Taylor Kranzley and Grace Lesko combined to knock down six-straight free throws in the final minute to put the game away.

Lesko led the Kids with 13 points. Kranzley and Devyn Demchak both scored 12. Demchak added 7 boards. Kylie Gilliard had 10 points and 7 rebounds. Nicole Yellen scored 5 points and added a pair of steals.

Demchak described the experience of playing at the PPL Center.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I was definitely the most nervous coming into this. I was shaking in warm-ups. Unlike Taylor, I missed almost everything in warm-ups. Once I got out there I settled in a little bit and felt much better. Once the game started, it became just like a regular game.”

The K-Kids had advanced to semifinals by beating Nazareth 43-30 last Thursday in Pete Schneider Gymnasium. They were on shaky ground after only scoring two points in the second quarter and holding a slim 16-15 halftime lead.

The Blue Eagles took a 18-16 lead after 2 minutes of the third quarter and Northampton trailed until Taylor Kranzley knocked down a three-pointer with 3:29 left in the period to put the Kids up 20-18. That sparked a 13-1 run to end the quarter including a buzzer-beating Grace Lesko three that gave Northampton a comfortable 30-19 margin heading into the final period.

Lesko led the team with 13 points. Kylie Gilliard had 9 points and 3 blocked shots. Devyn Demchak scored 7 points and pulled down 15 boards. Nicole Yellen added 7 points and 3 steals. Kranzley notched 5 points.