Last season the Northampton boys basketball team had to wait for over a week after their regular season had ended to find out whether they had claimed the sixth and final District XI 6A playoff berth based on the power ranking tiebreaker.

This year’s edition of the Konkrete Kids will have no such angst as they blew out previously 14-1 Blue Mountain 63-52 on Saturday to secure their 11th win of the season and an automatic bid to the postseason.

The calling card for the K-Kids has been defense, but it was Northampton’s shooting that had the Blue Mountain coaching staff muttering, “Did they miss any shots?” as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms at halftime. It wasn’t quite Villanova against Georgetown in 1985, but the Kids were 17 of 24 from the field, including 8 of 11 from three-point range as they scored 23 in the first quarter and 20 in the second to lead 43-20 at the intermission.

“We needed it. We played tough in the first half. We boxed out well and played good defense. When our defense is going, it’s easier to score. We’re not lighting the world on fire offensively (Blue Mountain might disagree). We don’t have a guy that’s going to go out and score 20 or 30, but if we can get stops and get into transition, we’re pretty good at that,” explained head coach Matt Scholl after the game.

Northampton’s shooting returned to normal levels in the second half, but it really did not impact the outcome. They led 53-34 after the third quarter and it was only due to a 14 to 1 Blue Mountain run over the last 4 minutes of the game that the final score looked reasonably competitive.

Brody Graff and Noah Walakovits led the K-Kids with a dozen points each. Tristan Pinnock and Trent Moyer, who made his first start of the season, both scored 9. J.J. Kolumber and Brady Simock each notched 8. Simock also pulled down 11 rebounds. Shakim Dunbar scored 5.

Northampton’s record stands at 11-5, 6-5 in the EPC with 6 games left to play in the regular season. While the district bid is assured, the K-Kids are going to have to battle to get into EPC’s. They are currently tied with Whitehall for the final two spots in the league tournament.

The team is home for Central (14-4, 9-3 EPC) on Friday, at Palmerton (9-6) for a nonleague game on Saturday, and at Parkland (12-3, 11-0 EPC) on Tuesday.

They finish the season with two games against Allen (winless in the EPC) sandwiched around a game at Whitehall (12-5, 6-5 EPC).