The Northampton girls basketball team’s bid to claim their first league title since 1998 ended in disappointment at the PPL Center last Thursday as Bethlehem Catholic won a hard-fought defensive struggle 37-32.

“It always seems to be Beca or Central,” lamented head coach Jeff Jacksits referring to previous conference championship game losses.

Devyn Demchak opened the scoring with a basket in the paint at 6:06 of the first period. It would be 14-and-half game minutes until the K-Kids hit another shot from the field. Nevertheless, a scrappy defense and 4-for-4 shooting from the free throw line staked Northampton to a 6-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.

When Becahi scored the first six points of the second period, it looked like the Kids were going to be in trouble. But the defense held the Golden Hawks scoreless for the last 5:21 of the half and Kylie Gilliard’s 3 free throws cut the deficit to a single point. Nicole Yellen drained a three 30 seconds before the break to give the Northampton a 12-10 lead at intermission.

The offenses continued to struggle into the second half as the K-Kids managed to cling to a 15-14 lead halfway through the third quarter. However, with four 3-pointers in the final four minutes of the period, the Hawks surged to a 26-22 advantage by the time the horn sounded.

Northampton had the lead down to 2 points at several junctures in the fourth quarter but never went ahead. The dagger was a trey with 1:31 left from Outstanding Player Stephanie Donato that put Beca up by five.

Jacksits acknowledged her shooting was the difference.

“Number 20 (Donato),” he said. “We just didn’t get out fast enough on our rotations and give her credit, she knocked down those threes. Those were big threes. There were a couple of times we could have secured a rebound better, but we played hard. We played good defense all game. We kept them in the 30s, they like to score in the 60s.”

Taylor Kranzley led the team with 9 points and had 4 steals. Grace Lesko scored 8 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Gilliard had 6 points. Demchak scored 5 points and grabbed 7 boards. Yellen had 4 points.

Between the girls and boys championship games, the team picked up their trophy for winning the EPC West Division. Lesko (1st team) and Gilliard (3rd team) were acknowledged as EPC All-Stars during the break.

The district playoffs start Friday with the K-Kids taking on Freedom at 7:30 at Whitehall High School. Northampton beat the Patriots 42-38 on December 18. Freedom has one win against teams that qualified for the EPC tournament this year, but they feature dangerous 1,000-point scorer and EPC first-team All-Star Kailey Turpening.

If the Kids advance to the semifinals, they will play the winner of the 6 p.m. game at Whitehall between Nazareth and Emmaus. Northampton is 2-0 against both the Blue Eagles and the Hornets this season with all the victories by 13 or more points.

The girls 6A semifinal games will be on Tuesday, but the site and time are TBD. The four teams in the semis secure berths in the state playoffs. All ticketing for district games is done through districtxi.com. No cash sales at the door. People 65 and older are admitted free of charge.