The first EPC game of the season for the Northampton girls basketball team is one that they will try to forget as soon as possible, as Parkland left Pete Schneider Gymnasium with a 58-30 win on Tuesday night.

The defending district champions hit 9 of their first 11 shots, including 7 3-pointers, to build a 25-9 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. They led 38-14 at the half.

A pair of Madelyn Hurst threes had kept the K-Kids in the game early as the Trojans only led 9-8 halfway through the first period. The next 5 minutes of game time saw Parkland go on a 20-1 run.

Despite being triple-teamed every time she touched the ball on the offensive end, Grace Lesko led the Kids with 15 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, and added 3 steals. Hurst hit a total of 3 shots from behind the arc for 9 points. Nicole Yellen scored 5 points and Kaylee Christman had a first quarter free throw to get on the scoring sheet.

“We dug ourselves a big hole and we weren’t running our offense,” lamented Kids’ head coach Jeff Jacksits. “Give them credit, they played well – Parkland. They did a nice job and we just didn’t play as well as we should have. Hopefully it will come. It’s early in the season and we only had one practice to prepare for them.”

While the loss to Parkland was a disappointment, the team did start the year in their traditional fashion by winning the Owen J Roberts Tipoff Tournament. The K-Kids defeated Coatesville 53-47 in the opening round and thumped the hosts 41-29 to win the title.

Grace Lesko was named tournament MVP after scoring 28 points against Coatesville and 22 against OJR. Nicole Yellen made the all-tournament team after going for 14 and 11.

Lesko’s 65 points through the first three games leaves her 42 shy of eclipsing the career 1,000 point mark. Unless she has a monster game at home against Liberty on Friday, the celebration of the accomplishment will have to take place either at Bangor on Saturday or at Rockne Hall versus Central on Tuesday.