“We had about six games we should have won this year,” lamented Northampton head girls basketball coach Jeff Jacksits.

He continued, “We expected to struggle this year, but not as bad as our record shows. We’ve been in games. We’re always in pretty much for the first half except for Easton. Our defense is decent in the half court. We’re just giving too many live ball turnovers.”

Those turnovers were the main culprit in the Kids’ 52-48 loss to Bangor last Saturday. The Slaters became adept at anticipating the Northampton cross court passes at the top of the arc, leading to multiple fast break opportunities on steals.

Despite this, the K-Kids’ full court press was effective enough to balance out the turnover margin in the first quarter and Northampton built an 11-3 lead over the opening seven minutes of the contest. Bangor scored the last 5 points of the period to cut the margin to 3 when the horn sounded.

The Kids got into some foul trouble in the second period with indispensable point guard Anne Beenders picking up a third foul five minutes into the quarter. This forced Northampton to ease up on the defensive pressure and Bangor took advantage scoring 16 points to the Kids’ 13 to knot the game at 24 at the half.

The early part of the third quarter was a back-and-forth affair as neither team was able to build a substantial advantage. Northampton held their last lead of the game at 33-32 with 2:59 left in the period.

From that point, Bangor scored the last 7 points of the third quarter and had a 9-2 run in the first 2 minutes of the final period to blow the game open and seize a 13-point lead, 48-35. Still, the Kids showed their heart and went on a 10-0 run over the next 4 minutes to make the last minute and a half of action interesting.

A missed breakaway layup could have cut the lead to 1 with 34 seconds left, but unfortunately the ball refused to drop, and Northampton was forced to put the Slaters on the line and hope for missed free throws. Bangor was able to ice the game from the stripe.

Rachel Yost led a balanced K-Kids offense with 12 points. Beenders knocked down three 3’s on her way to 11. Dalani Petties scored 9. Jenna Raysely and Isabella Pecuch both had 6. Kylie Eberts hit a long desperation three at the final buzzer for her lone score of the game. Tatianna Sanchez scored 2.