Northampton’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams both kick-started a busy second half of the season by capturing their respective holiday tournaments.

The girls’ fought off and then took command over a talented Jim Thorpe team for the title in the Pocono Mountain West tournament, while the boys’ had little trouble with Saucon Valley as they won the Salisbury tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

At Pocono Mountain West, the Konkrete Kids easily disposed of Liberty, 55-29, in their opener, and then downed Jim Thorpe, 41-36 in the final. Morgan Sterner was the tournament Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Grace Lesko was named to the All-Tournament Team.

It was the Kids’ second tournament title this season, as they won the Owen J. Roberts tournament to begin the season. The victories lifted them to a 7-2 mark overall.

“Liberty is a young team, and Jim Thorpe is very good,” said Kids’ girls’ head coach Jeff Jacksits. “I thought we would be chasing Jim Thorpe the whole game, and then they came out 4-0 against us.

But Grace Lesko hit three straight three-pointers Morgan (Sterner) started driving to the basket and got us going. We were up 24-13 at the half and we really played well defensively. To hold a team like that to 36 points is a very good effort for us.”

Jacksits credited the play of Taylor Kranzley at the point overall and Kylie Gilliard in the Jim Thorpe game. He consistently has seen a balanced effort.

“Taylor (Kranzley) has really handled the point well for us, and Kylie (Gilliard) had a better game against Thorpe,” he said. “This is really an unselfish team and it doesn’t matter who is scoring. They really have picked it up for each other.”

The Kids begin a busy stretch with five game over 10 days beginning with Pleasant Valley Thursday and then perennial power Freedom Saturday.

“We go back Thursday and then have Freedom two days later,” said Jacksits. “We would like two days to prepare for Freedom. But we have to deal with the schedule, and these kids don’t seem to be bothered by any pressure.”

On the boys’ front, the Kids shook off some cobwebs after the first quarter against Quakertown in the opener from nearly a week off, and they went on to a convincing 82-55 victory. The following night, they thumped Saucon Valley, 49-31, to again take home the trophy.

Zach Gula was the tournament MVP and Spencer Cole and Issac Harris were named to the all-tournament team. Gula had 20 in the opener and nine in the title game. Harris led the team with 10 points against Saucon Valley.

Jon Altomare ignited the Kids with his inside play (nine points) in the opening half against Quakertown.

“We were worried about starting slow against slow against Quakertown because we hadn’t played since we beat Nazareth (Dec. 23),” said Kids’ head coach Coy Stampone. “We worked the ball inside and then kicked it outside to get our rhythm and adjusted better.

“We started off fast with a 172- lead against Saucon Valley, and our defense helped turn in a lot of transition points for us. We got a chance to work on some things in the second half, working on our execution in certain situations.”

Like his female counterparts, Stampone realizes there is a proving ground ahead over the next two weeks starting with Pleasant Valley and Freedom. With their fourth consecutive win, the Kids raised their mark to 6-2 overall.

“It was nice to step out of the leagues over the holidays and win the tournament,” added Stampone. “Salisbury runs a great tournament.

“We jump right back into conference play this week. We got to keep improving and getting better each game and each week.”