When the Zephyrs were playing up-tempo against Boyertown last Saturday night, all the pieces were falling into place. But when they were forced to run their half court offense, they struggled to find any consistency and wound up losing on a last-second shot to the visiting Bears.

The man who hoisted that winning shot was Jerry Kapp. Kapp also closed out the first half with a three-pointer, one of his nine treys on his way to a school-record 47 points. His outburst helped the Bears erase a 12-point deficit heading into the final quarter, giving Boyertown a 78-76 victory.

As the game unfolded, it looked like Whitehall would make the Bears another victim of their up-tempo style. They raced out to a 18-9 first quarter lead, getting fast break opportunities from a variety of players as they stepped into passing lanes forcing turnovers that were turned into points.

As the second quarter began, they found themselves in more half court sets, and that’s when they seemed indecisive. They continued to maintain the lead, but they had trouble scoring from the perimeter, netting only one three-pointer the whole game.

Their inability to get consistency in the half court has been an ongoing struggle this season.

“A concern of ours, and what we’ve been talking about all the time, is our inability at times to run a half-court offense without turning the ball over or getting a really good shot,” said head coach Jeff Jones.

Jones said that was especially true in the fourth quarter when they only tallied 13 points. He said they weren’t getting great shots or weren’t taking care of the ball, allowing the Bears to capitalize.

He was also frustrated by their inability to stop Kapp while playing man-to-man defense. Time after time, Kapp would pop out beyond the stripe and fire a three.

“It was disappointing,” he said.

Jones said that they’re looking to try different things defensively in the second half that they had discussed during timeouts, but they didn’t execute those plans on the floor.

One thing the Zephs were able to do in the second half was to get off to a hot start. They went on an 8-0 run, extending their lead to 18 points. That surge was spearheaded by Zach Gilbert, Logan McGinley and Charles Hudson who each scored buckets down low, with Hudson serving as a one man wrecking crew as he turned turnovers into points.

With that lead now heading north, Jones felt his team was finding their stride.

“I thought here we go, okay, we’re going to get on a little run here,” said Jones. “And we did, but unfortunately you have to build on that lead and we didn’t have the ability to do that.”

But Boyertown was able to put together their own run, riding the outside shooting of Kapp and Zach Benning to go on a 11-3 run, prompting a timeout by Jones.

That was one of those occasions where they discussed what they wanted to do defensively, but it never materialized.

Even though they had a 10-point lead at the break, Jones was more concerned that they gave up 25 points heading into halftime. The offense demonstrated they could score against the Bears, but he wanted his defense to be more assertive.

“I felt like that was too much at that point,” said Jones. “We had too many guys who got beat off the dribble and too many defensive lapses mentally.”

The Zephs still found a way to keep the Bears at arms length through most of the fourth quarter as Kasai Harrison scored in consecutive trips down the floor to put the lead at 73-63. But the Bears clawed back shortly after that, with Benning hitting a trey to make it 73-69 with 2:40 left to play. That’s when Kapp took over, scoring at the charity stripe and forcing a turnover that he turned into a deuce to make it a one-point game, 76-75, with just over a minute left.

Moments later, a loose ball arrow pointed to Boyertown and when Kapp flashed beyond the arc at the elbow, the shot found nothing but twine.

Hudson’s final attempt for the win just missed as his runner fell off the mark, giving the Bears the victory.

“I give a lot of credit to them because they kept fighting,” said Jones. “They kept playing hard. That kid had an unbelievable night, that’s for sure.

“They won the game, that’s for sure, but we made it easier than we should have.”

The Zephs returned to league play on Tuesday as they topped Nazareth 82-61, giving them a sweep of the Blue Eagles this season.

With the win, their record climbs to 11-3.