The Northampton girls basketball team capped off their 3-game swing through the EPC North with a 50-35 win over Pocono Mountain East Tuesday night in Pete Schneider Gymnasium. The victory put the K-Kids one win over .500 on the season at 7-6 and boosted their league mark to 3-5.

By the Opponent’s Win Percentage (OWP) metric in the District XI power ranking formula, the team has played the 2nd most difficult schedule in the district to this point of the season.

The Cardinals came into the game at 5-7 and ranked second in 5A, but riding a 3-game losing streak including competitive losses to Liberty and Central.

The first quarter was tightly contested as the Kids held a narrow 9-7 lead, before Nicole Yellen added two points on the last shot prior to the horn.

East hit 3-pointer to open the second period to cut the lead to one, but Northampton went on a 12-1 run over the next 5 minutes to blow the game open. The K-Kids did their damage from behind the arc as Grace Lesko and Anne Beenders each hit a trey while Yellen knocked down a pair of long balls.

At the halftime break, the Kids led 25-13 with Lesko and Yellen having scored 11 points apiece.

Maddie Hurst bookended the Northampton scoring in the third quarter with three to open their scoring and another with 5 seconds left in the quarter to stake the K-Kids to a comfortable 41-25 lead heading into the final frame.

Both teams’ benches saw substantial action in the fourth quarter after Northampton responded to an early 4-point Cardinals’ run with a 5-point run of their own.

Lesko led all scorers with 21 points. She also pulled down 8 rebounds and blocked 3 shots. In a season where she’s been consistently triple-teamed in the paint, the game provided a bit of a physical respite as she did not attempt a single free throw.

Lesko spoke about her evening’s work, “I missed one layup because I turned around and expected there to be three people there and I was wide open.” She continued, “It was a good game. We needed a little bit of confidence after some tough losses here in the beginning of the season.”

Yellen scored 17 points, grabbed 8 boards, and swiped 6 steals. Hurst finished with 9 points and Beenders with 3 to round out the scoring.

Head coach Jeff Jacksits summed up his team’s performance, “We still have stuff to work on. There was a spot where they scored 3 baskets in row, and we threw the ball away 3 times in a row. When we play better teams that we can beat like Central and Emmaus, we can’t do things like that.”

Northampton’s next home game is Friday night when Cement Belt rival Whitehall comes to town. The Zephyrs are 4-8 overall this year, 2-5 in the EPC.