In a game they had to have to keep their district playoff hopes alive, the Northampton boys basketball team overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to sweep their season series against Cement Belt rival Whitehall 56-50.

Both teams started off hot, but the Kids went ice cold missing their last 7 shots of the first quarter. 6-7 sophomore AJ Hines scored 6 to lead an early Zephyrs’ charge and give them a 16-6 lead after one.

With Hines in foul trouble, Whitehall turned to their outside shooting in the second quarter, going 4 for 6 from long range to build a 31-20 halftime lead.

However from there, the Zephs managed to go just 8 of 26 the rest of the way, allowing the K-Kids to coming storming back. After Whitehall scored the first basket of the second half, Northampton basically hit the reset button on the game by scoring the next 10 points. The Zephyrs still held a 6-point lead with 4:40 left in the third, but from that point the Kids went on a 16-2 run that turned the game on its head.

Sam Koplin keyed the turnaround, scoring all 9 of his points on 3 3-pointers in a 1 minute 50 second stretch encompassing the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. Most importantly, the game swung from 38-37 Whitehall to 46-40 Northampton during that flurry. The Kids never trailed after that.

Koplin described his role in the comeback, “I wanted the shots. They were setting me up with great passes. We were running the plays and executing amazingly. The defense led to the offense and that was the key to the second half. It was great to do it on Senior Night.”

Northampton head coach Matt Scholl praised his senior, “He came in off the bench with utmost confidence and we have confidence in him to do that. He knows he’s got the green light. Once the first one goes, with Sam you know there’s going to be a couple more.”

The Kids’ Tristen Pinnock led all scorers with 18 points and hit 4 big free throws down the stretch. Tyler Kauffman had 11. Brody Graff and Parker Christman added 7 points apiece. Jonathan Kolumber scored 4.

Luke Keppel led Whitehall with 17 points. He did most of his damage behind the arc with 5 3-pointers. Hines tallied a dozen points. Ethan Ringenberger had 9. Rounding out the scoring for the Zephyrs was: Aiden Parvel 5, Seth Hoderewski 3, Seb Orochena and Gavin Roberts, 2 each.

The Kids’ win put them in a 3-way tie with Allen and Nazareth for the 5th and 6th spots in the District XI 6A seeding. Northampton’s loss to Allen on Monday clinched the 5 spot for the Canaries, but Nazareth’s 2OT loss to Becahi left the Kids and Blue Eagles sweating the power ranking tiebreaker for the final berth. As of this writing, it looks like Northampton will get that bid.

The Zephyrs had already clinched their 5A district spot before this game. They are seeded fourth and appear headed to a quarterfinal matchup with Bangor on February 24. PM West is the top seed in 5A, but Whitehall beat the Panthers 63-61 in December, so a district title is not out of the question.