It was an uphill battle most of the way for Whitehall when they faced Bethlehem Catholic in the opening round of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs, and that climb never got them over the summit against the streaking Golden Hawks.

The Hawks, who came into the EPC championship as the fourth seed, arrived at the playoffs after beating William Allen in their final regular season game. Allen was ranked No.1 in the state, and the Hawks dealt the undefeated Canaries a convincing 12-point loss. Whitehall, on the other hand, came into the playoffs on somewhat shakier ground. They had lost three out of their last four games, dropping the season finale to Emmaus in overtime.

And when the game began, the Zephs found themselves scrambling to play catch-up after the Hawks sizzled from the perimeter, nailing three consecutive treys to close out the first period. Buckets from guards Justin Paz and Will Melson gave the Hawks a 25-14 lead and set the storyline for the first half.

While Whitehall was able to stay within striking distance in the first half, thanks to Zach Gilbert’s hot hand (13 of his 18 points during that span), the Hawks were burning threes with consistency, connecting on six in the first 16 minutes.

The Zephs were able to cut the deficit to six late in the third period when Kayden Walschburger drove to the basket and then kicked it Logan McGinley who spotted up for the bucket. That made it 46-40, but that was the closest the Zephs would get the rest of the way as the Hawks kept Whitehall from establishing any rhythm offensively, eventually moving onto the semifinals with a 64-54 win.

That was the Zephs third-lowest output of the season. While the Hawks defense may have played a role in tamping down their offense, head coach Jeff Jones believes their struggles were more self inflicted.

“Right now, we’re not very much of a team,” said Jones. “That’s the bottom line. We’re a group of individuals, and at this point, individuals don’t win. Teams win. Right now, we’re not playing as a team. I can’t explain the selfishness, but it seems that’s what it is. And unless it changes, we’re [only] going to play one more game. It’s not helping us. It’s disappointing.”

They were also hampered by their inability to apply what they went over in practice to the game, said Jones.

“A couple of things we talked about doing at practice yesterday didn’t happen,” said Jones. “I thought we were pretty selfish on the offensive end, and we were very lax on the defensive end.

“I thought our post guys did a pretty good job on [Ryan] Young (6 points). We talked about fronting the post and making him work, and I thought we did a pretty good job with that. Otherwise, we talked about how we were going to defend ball screens and stuff like that and we didn’t do it which is really frustrating from our perspective as coaches, for what we thought would give us the best chance to win. We didn’t execute; we didn’t even attempt it, which is disappointing.”

After a successful summer in which they claimed a Stellar Big School Championship, the Zephs are looking to find that magic again. They’ll get that chance again when the district playoffs begin next week.