After three straight losses to open 2025, the Northampton boys basketball team needed a spark to get their season going back in the right direction. Surprisingly, a disciplinary issue seemed to energize the Kids in their 63-33 win against Freedom last Friday.

A few of the normal starters were suspended for the first quarter due to some immature behavior during the school day. However, the starting five for the night, led by Ethan Raphun and Brady Simock, acquitted themselves admirably as they staked Northampton to a 16-13 lead after the first 8 minutes.

From there, the floodgates burst open as the team played with an energy and intensity that had been missing for weeks. They outscored the Patriots 16-3 in the second quarter on the way to a 32-16 halftime advantage.

The third quarter was fairly even as the K-Kids “only” led by 18 going to the fourth quarter. After Freedom made the first basket of the final period, Northampton ran off 16 straight points to put the game into the Mercy Rule.

Lest anyone think that Freedom was just a get-right kind of team, the Patriots were 8-6 coming into the game and were one of two teams to beat Central this year.

Noah Walakovits scored a career-high 30 points on an absurd 14 of 17 shooting including a pair of three-pointers. Simock tallied 11 points. Raphun was 3 for 3 from the field in the first quarter to score 6 of his 8 total points. Korbin Sollars and Marcus Ramos both scored 4. Jake Raysley and Logan Walter had 3 apiece.

Head coach Matt Scholl described circumstances surrounding the game, “We had a rough day. Some of the guys got involved…they were not the problem, but they didn’t stop the problem and we hold our guys to a higher standard here. So we sat five of them out. The five guys that started found out at 2 o’clock that they were starting. Some had never started a varsity basketball game. They brought all the energy we could ask for. And to their credit, the guys who sat out were into the game the whole time they were on the bench.”

Unfortunately for the K-Kids, losses to Central and Whitehall on Monday and Tuesday respectively have them at 8-7 overall and 6-4 in the EPC. With 7 games left in the regular season, they need to win at least three to clinch a postseason berth.

Thursday, they host 13-3 Pocono Mountain East and on Monday Easton, 4-10, comes to Pete Schneider Gymnasium.