After a 2-year absence, the Northampton girls basketball team is heading back to the District XI 6A championship game and the state playoffs. The latter was secured with last Friday’s 51-32 win against Freedom. The former followed the K-Kids’ 47-37 win in the district semifinals against Nazareth on Tuesday at Whitehall High School.

The old cliché that it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a single season seemed ready to rear its ugly head as the Blue Eagles rode some hot shooting to claim a 17-16 lead after the first quarter. The advantage was extended to 20-18 when Nazareth star Kelly Leszcynski knocked down a three to give her 11 points in the first 9 minutes of the game.

The tide turned when Taylor Kranzley forced a steal and took the ball all the way to the hoop for a layup and a 3-point play that sparked a 12-0 Northampton run. A late Blue Eagles’ field goal sent the teams to the locker room with the Kids holding a 30-22 lead.

Northampton scored the first eight points of the third quarter and it felt like the game was well in hand. Even a late Nazareth three seemed irrelevant as the K-Kids took a 38-26 advantage into the final period.

However, the Blue Eagles’ defensive pressure at the start of the fourth quarter seemed to unnerve the Kids as they went 0 for 4 from the field and committed 3 turnovers allowing Nazareth to close to within 39-33 with 1:05 left in the game.

Clutch free throw shooting allowed Northampton to close out the game without too much more anxiety. Kranzley, Devyn Demchak, and Nicole Yellen were 8 for 8 from the charity stripe during the final minute of play.

Grace Lesko led the K-Kids in scoring with 15 points. Kranzley scored an even dozen. Kylie Gilliard had 9 points including a pair of early threes that kept Northampton close. Demchak had 7 points, 8 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Yellen scored 4 points, grabbed 6 boards, had a pair of steals, and shut down Nazareth’s second-best shooter, Maddie Ahern.

Head coach Jeff Jacksits, who will go for career win 300 on Friday, summed up the game.

“Overall our defense was outstanding,” he said. “You’re playing Nazareth, they run all kinds of sets. They’ve got some great players you have to account for. Kelly was lights out in the beginning. She was hitting like NBA threes, so we had to extend on our switches and Nicole did a good job on Ahearn.”

The K-Kids will face Parkland for the District XI 6A championship. The Trojans upset Easton 44-40 in the other semifinal. Northampton and Parkland split their regular season contests. The Kids beat Parkland 52-42 in the EPC semifinals in a game where the fourth quarter margin hovered around 4 points until the end-of-game free throws.