Now that Whitehall and Northampton are no longer in the same division in the EPC, the schools had to schedule a nonleague contest to allot Cement Belt points in basketball.

Tuesday night’s girls tilt at Whitehall featured a pair of teams still clinging to slim hopes of qualifying for districts.

The Konkrete Kids took a 13-point lead into halftime, but the Zephyrs managed to make a game of it. They were able to pull within four in the third quarter and had the margin at 5 points with 4:35 remaining in the game, but the K-Kids came out on top 48-37.

Northampton got out to a quick start as Isabella Pecuch scored all 6 of her points in the contest in the first 3 minutes of the game to stake the visitors to a 6-0 lead.

Whitehall utilized their height advantage by getting the ball to Jade Alvarez inside and she responded by scoring 12 of the Zephyrs 16 first-half points. Although the inside game was working, Whitehall struggled with turnovers, committing 12 in the first 16 minutes resulting in a 29-16 halftime deficit.

The K-Kids missed their first 10 shots from the floor in the third quarter allowing the Zephyrs to claw back into the game by cutting the lead to 32-28. However, Northampton ran off 7 straight points, keyed by a pair of layups by Anne Beenders to push the margin back to double digits. A buzzer-beating layup by Alvarez made the score 39-30 after three quarters.

Whitehall was within 41-36 halfway through the final period, but neither team managed a field goal the rest of the way. The K-Kids outscored the Zephyrs 7-1 from the charity stripe to seal the game.

Beenders led all scorers with 19 points including 7 of 8 from the free throw line. Jenna Raysley scored 13 for Northampton. Abbie Luipersbeck had 8 including the Kids’ only three-pointer.

Alvarez had 18 points for the game but saw her playing time restricted after picking up her fourth foul with 1:50 left in the third quarter. Charlotte Bynoe scored 7. Llyneida Otanez had 4 followed by Keona Spooner and Abigail Kneller with 3 each.

A relieved Northampton head coach Jeff Jacksits described managing the late game situation, “We went with the model, ‘When in doubt, bring it out.’ We haven’t really worked on any delay offenses. We didn’t do it exactly as it should have been done, but we did it well enough.”

Northampton improves to 8-8 overall, 3-7 in the EPC. Whitehall falls to 6-10 with an identical 3-7 conference record.