As the high school basketball regular season dwindles into its final handful of games, the importance of each contest is elevated for those teams on the bubble of qualifying for the postseason. The Northampton boys team came into Friday night’s clash with Allen riding a 4 game winning streak that had evened their record at 7-7.

The Canaries were 8-7, giving the Kids an opportunity to gain a valuable spot in the district rankings with a win. However, Allen used a stifling defense to hold Northampton to a season-low in points scored and claim a 50-30 victory.

The Canaries started out hot from behind the arc as they hit three 3-pointers on the way to building an 11-2 lead halfway through the first quarter. The K-Kids responded by holding Allen scoreless for the final 4 minutes of the period and clawed their way back into the game and only trailed 11-9 at the first break.

The second quarter followed a similar pattern. Allen outscored the Kids 12-0 in the first 4 minutes while Northampton had an ensuing mini-run of 7-2 to cut the deficit to 9 points at the half, 25-16.

Any hope of a comeback died in the third quarter. The Canaries only put up 10 points, but the Kids were held to a single basket as the margin ballooned to 35-18.

Head coach Matt Scholl summed up the contest, “They played great defense. They’re aggressive and I thought we backed down a little bit today. We get to play them again in a couple of weeks, so we won’t be as afraid, I think. But kudos to them. They came out prepared and they took pretty much everything we wanted to do away from us.”

Overall, the Kids shot 10-31 from the field and committed 14 turnovers.

J.J. Kolumber led Northampton with 9 points. Tristan Pinnock had 7, Parker Christman 6, Tyler Kauffman and Sam Koplin 3 each, and Brady Simock 2.

A rebound win against Blue Mountain on Saturday and a loss to Emmaus on Tuesday has the Kids at 8-9 on the season with 5 games yet to play. They are at Central on Friday, home for Palmerton on Monday, home for Parkland on Tuesday, home for Whitehall next Friday, and at Allen to close the regular season February 6.