Northampton’s Konkrete Kids lived up to their name despite their 44-28 loss to Plymouth Whitemarsh in the second round of PIAA Class 6A girls basketball state playoffs last Friday night at Spring-Ford High School, Royersford.

“I love history,” said Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Dan Dougherty, “so I immediately researched Konkrete Kids, and then, when I watched them play, I was like, yeah, they look like the descendants of Konkrete Kids. They are tough, physical, but also smart and respectful too. Nothing was mean or dirty out there. Grace Lesko, [Kylie Gilliard] are so talented. It’s rare for a team to go against our size, and what [the Konkrete Kids] did well, especially in the first quarter, was use their strength to finish through it.”

That first quarter belonged more to the Konkrete Kids than to the Colonials, starting with Taylor Kranzley’s layup and ending with Nicole Yellen’s two free throws. In between were buckets by Lesko and Gilliard while the Colonials had their share of missed opportunities and ultimately scored most of their points on foul shots.

“We did what we wanted to do,” said Northampton coach Jeff Jacksits. “We were playing great defense, moving, rebounding. We knew we had to hit the boards, and then that second quarter we had some mental lapses, got a little lazy on some back cuts, and we didn’t finish strong. If we could’ve gotten rid of that second quarter, we were right there. You can’t give that team many minutes, let alone a whole quarter.”

Yellen made a flying interception at the six-minute mark, but the Kids couldn’t convert on the play as the two teams continued to trade looks for two more minutes.

“We typically come out and try a couple different presses on teams to see if we can jump on them early, and it didn’t work tonight,” Dougherty said. “We missed layups in the beginning of the game, but it’s a state tournament, we’re undefeated, it’s nerves.”

So after a timeout midway through the second quarter, the Colonials leaned on what they knew they had.

“What we have is a special group that’s experienced to be able to frustrate teams in the half court, and I thought that was a big deal,” said Dougherty. “When you look at the length and the height of our team, you can switch on four kids pretty easily, and I think that caught Northampton a little off guard. Offensively, we were able to get out in transition and get a couple easy baskets in the second quarter, and that calmed our nerves.”

The Colonials went on to outscore the K-Kids 15-2 in the remaining four minutes before halftime.

“I told them we couldn’t take any series off and had to keep playing the whole time,” Jacksits said. “The best thing for us to do was try and get it down to eight, seven points for the fourth quarter, and we started off OK, and then it ballooned up a little bit. Our girls played their hardest but had one bad quarter, and that was enough to get [Plymouth Whitemarsh] over the hump.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh guard Abby Sharpe scored on a handoff from Jordyn Thomas to start the third quarter, and Gilliard responded with a bucket after Yellen intercepted another Colonials’ pass.

But Plymouth Whitemarsh scored nine more points, and the Colonials led 35-17 at the end of the quarter capped off by Kaitlyn Flanagan’s 3-pointer.

Kranzley scored after Lesko forced a turnover to start the fourth quarter, and Lesko added four more points, but the K-Kids were forced to foul while the Colonials were running down the clock.

“Yeah, it’s always nice, it’s great to be here, and there aren’t many teams still playing,” Jacksits said. “It’s all about matchups in the state playoffs, and you know, I don’t know if this is fair, being the second seed out of your district playing the number one seed out of District 1. One’s always the toughest district.”

Coach Dougherty described what it’s like to be a team in District 1.

“Winning the District 1 championship is as pressure-packed as winning a state championship,” he said. “There’s 44 Class 6A schools. You have to win at Temple, you have to play, it’s really tough, and so now, I feel like we’ve gotten to play a few teams that don’t know us. Manheim Township and Northampton haven’t seen us before, and it’s hard to replicate in practice.”

While the Colonials will advance to the state quarterfinal, the Konkrete Kids will graduate five seniors: Gilliard, Kranzley, Devyn Demchak, Julia Mertz, and Brianna Tyler.

“That’s the hardest locker room of the year. The end. The seniors are gone. They’ve been great kids, and it’s tough losing those girls,” said Jacksits. “Next year, we have a nice, little nucleus coming back, so the younger girls will have to step up now. I told them, this is what it’s like. If you want to go this far, you gotta work hard to get back here because it’s not easy to get back here.”