The Northampton girls basketball team has struggled closing out games this year. In 5 of their 10 losses this year, they held the lead going into the fourth quarter. Last Friday, the bugaboo hit them again as Allentown Central Catholic came back from down 7 after 3 quarters to win 60-50.

Things started out well for the K-Kids as they held the Vikettes to 1 of 8 shooting in the first quarter. Grace Lesko poured in 8 points as Northampton built a solid 12-6 lead.

An 8-2 run to start the second quarter knotted the game at 14, but over the final 4 minutes of the period, the Kids outscored Central by 3 to take a 26-23 lead into halftime.

The Vikettes scored the first 6 points of the third quarter to take their first lead of the game at 29-26. They increased their advantage to 4 points with three minutes left in the period. However, Northampton closed on an 11-0 run as Central missed their final six shots of the quarter. The K-Kids held a 41-34 advantage going to the last period.

There are sports analysts who would argue that momentum does not truly exist. That a run of success or failure is not predictive of whether those results will continue. Those wanting to support that argument could hold up the fourth quarter of this game as proof that they are right.

Northampton was on a 11-0 run. Central had missed 6 shots in row. If momentum were real, the game should have been in the bag. Instead, the Vikettes scored 8 points in the first 100 seconds to retake the lead. For the quarter, they shot 10 of 11 from the floor, including 4 3-pointers and made both of their foul shots.

Head coach Jeff Jacksits assessed the performance, “In the first half our zone weakside rebounding wasn’t getting down fast enough and we gave up a lot of rebounds. They (Central) didn’t shoot very well in the first half. We probably should have been up by 10. It’s frustrating for us (the coaches) and them (the players). We could be like 15-4 at this point in the season.”

Lesko led all scorers with 27 points. Maddie Hurst had 9, Anne Beenders 7, Nicole Yellen 6, and Sophie Steirer 1.

Northampton is 10-10 overall, 6-8 in the EPC. A conference tournament bid is still technically possible if Liberty loses their final 2 games (Freedom and Easton) and the Kids win theirs and the tiebreakers fall the Kids’ way. To qualify for districts, the team needs to win at least one of their final 2 games. They travel to Whitehall (6-12 this year) on Friday and host Allen (4-15) for Senior Night on Monday.