Being one of the top teams in the EPC and earning a trip to the finals, the Northampton’s girls’ basketball team easily could have a swagger about them.

Head coach Jeff Jacksits doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think we are overconfident,” he said back in January. “There aren’t any egos or the arrogance you may think is present.

“We’ll get after them for that. They must be wondering why I am yelling at them. They are all very unselfish and a very close-knit group. They may joke around in the huddle before a game, but they go out and get the job done.”

There also is the matter of the Konkrete Kids hitting their stride too early.

“We constantly stress to them that you don’t want to peak in the early part of the season,” added Jacksits. “You want to be climbing the mountain toward the postseason, not coming down the other side.”

The girls seem to be doing just that, knocking off Nazareth and Parkland in the EPC playoffs and now heading toward a game against Bethlehem Catholic in the finals.

With their share of blowout victories over the course of the season, the Kids were able to tinker with some new wrinkles of their offense and defense to help them now.

“It allows us to do some different things,” said Jacksits last month. “We can put some stuff in and try it on offense and defense.

“It is better for us to try those things against other teams instead of always running our second team.”

Junior Grace Lesko is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder. Senior Kylie Gillard and fellow senior Devyn Demchak are also key to the offense.

“Grace has been playing very well lately, and she should average close to 20 points per game,” said Jacksits. “The other girls have helped us keep balanced scoring, as someone else steps up for us every game.”

Jacksits has watched his team respond well all season with few bumps along the way.

“We shouldn’t have lost the game against Beca (Bethlehem Catholic, earlier this season),” he said. “That was on the coaches and the players. Against Jim Thorpe, we got down double-digits, but we fought back to get it to five points. We ran out of gas at the end, and they hit their foul shots.

“We didn’t play that well against Freedom, but we pulled it out. Those are the only real clunkers we have had this season.

“We have been able to put teams away in games we should win.”

Jacksits knows, however, there is still plenty of road ahead.

“We have to play teams we saw earlier,” he said. “We still have things to work on. We just have to stay focused.”