With their continued improved play during the summer, Northampton's boys' basketball team continues to grow optimism toward the upcoming winter season.

The Konkrete Kids recently finished play in the Allentown Sportsfest Tournament with an overall 2-1 record, earning impressive victories over Philadelphia-based Ben Franklin as well as Saucon Valley and losing a heart-breaking game to Reading. The Kids also just missed advancing to the sweet sixteen of the tournament due to their point differential.

In a 36-34 victory over Ben Franklin, incoming senior Garrett Oplinger paced the Kids with 10 points and incoming sophomore Morgan Heffelfinger hit the winning basket with five seconds left in the game.

Fellow incoming senior AQ McNeil had a team-high 14 points to help the Kids to a 39-31 victory over Saucon Valley, and Oplinger hit a three-point shot late, but Reading rallied for a last-second shot to capture a 47-45 victory.

"We had three very close games and two of them were won on last-second shots," said Kids' head coach Coy Stampone. "We thought we could advance to the next round, but we just missed it.

"Still, this team embraces the challenge of playing the tough teams. We had a good showing at the Stellar Tournament (3-2) and this one. It's a good sign of growth for the program."

Stampone was pleased with his squad's play at the DeSales University and Albright College team camps and the Allentown Summer League, in which it will finish play this week.

"We need to play against good competition because of the new LVC (Lehigh Valley Conference) format that will place us in a division with Parkland, Emmaus, Central Catholic, Nazareth and Whitehall.

"We had a balanced scoring attack and on any given night, someone stepped up and became our leading scorer. The team is building chemistry and has been very unselfish."

Stampone also cited the efforts of the program's JV team that went 2-1 at Sportsfest, defeating Liberty and Southern Lehigh before losing to Emmaus. Unfortunately, it also was eliminated from the final round due to a point differential.

"Our JVs had a very good tournament and that is a good sign for us," said Stampone. "I am very proud of how we have played this summer. We keep working in the weight room. Hopefully, these efforts will carry over to the winter for us."