The Northampton girls basketball team closed out their regular season on Monday with a Senior Night game against Freedom. The K-Kids’ two senior captains, Anne Beenders and Jenna Raysley combined for 40 points as Northampton downed the Patriots 60-53.

Northampton held a 31-13 lead at the half and expanded the advantage to 39-13 halfway through the third quarter when Freedom caught fire offensively and scored 40 points over the last 12 minutes of the contest and had the lead down to as few as 8 points with 1:30 left in the game.

The K-Kids were 15 of 21 from the free throw line for the game, but most importantly, were 9 of 12 in the fourth quarter as they held on for dear life.

“We were thinking that we were going to get the lead up to 30 and get the clock running, but we get deep into the fourth quarter and the lead is under 10. We came out and played hard, but like I’ve said all year, we can’t play four good quarters. If we did that, we could hang with the better teams,” mused head coach Jeff Jacksits.

Beenders led all scorers with 24 points. Raysley scored 16 and made 6 straight shots over one stretch. Isabella Pecuch had a dozen points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Abbie Luipersbeck scored 8.

Jacksits spoke about his two senior captains, “You can see how important Jenna and Anne have been. They had 24 and 16. They’re going to be hard to replace next year. They can both handle the ball, which is always a plus. They showed good leadership. It was hard to watch them walk off the court near the end of their last home game. Annie was getting a little teary.”

It might have been the team’s last home game of the year, but their season is not over yet. Despite finishing 10-12, a four-game improvement over last year, the Kids claimed the eighth and final spot in the District XI 6A field.

They will play next on Friday, Feb. 21, in the district quarterfinals against either Emmaus, or if a different 6A team wins the EPC title, against the league champion.