The Northampton girls basketball team will kickoff the defense of their District XI 6A title on Friday, when they play Pocono Mountain West at Pleasant Valley High School at 7:30 p.m.

The K-Kids claimed the #3 seed on the virtue of their 18-4 regular season record. They beat the sixth-seeded Panthers 50-32 on January 14 at Pocono Summit.

PM West has had an emotionally difficult season. Their 14-year head coach, Stacy Perryman, passed away on Jan. 20 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.

On the court, the Panthers’ game revolves around 6-foot-2 senior Aiyanalee Owens. Owens was named a third team EPC all-star this year. PM West had wins over Stroudsburg and Parkland during the season, so they shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Northampton leans heavily on its five starters, junior captain Morgan Sterner, sophomore guards Taylor Kranzley and Kylie Gilliard, and freshman frontcourt players Grace Lesko and Devyn Demchak. These five have accounted for 1,031 of the 1,103 total points scored by the team this season.

Sterner, who was named a first team EPC All-Star, leads the team with an average of 13.1 points per game and 25 three-pointers. Lesko has put up 10 points a game and despite playing center has hit 14 threes. Gilliard averages 9 a game and has knocked down 18 treys. Point guard Kranzley contributes 6.7 points per contest and is the team’s most accurate free throw shooter at 82 percent. Demchak checks in with 6 ppg.

Despite being the higher seed, the Kids and their fans will have to travel farther to get to their quarterfinal round game than PM West will. Two quarterfinal games are being played at Catty HS, but Northampton was not fortunate enough to get one of those spots.

The 6 p.m. game at Pleasant Valley HS is between #4 seed Stroudsburg and #5 seed Parkland. All tickets at the gate are $7. Students and seniors can get $4 tickets through pregame sales.

A win over PM West would guarantee the team at least 3 more games this season. First would be a semifinal contest against the winner of the game between #2 Freedom and #7 Easton. The Patriots swept the Rovers in the regular season and won the second meeting by 23 points.

Freedom also beat Northampton twice this year, once in the regular season and once in overtime in the EPC tournament quarterfinals.

The semifinals are on Tuesday, Feb. 25, but a site has not yet been announced. All four semifinalists qualify for the state tournament.

The district championship and consolation final are on Friday, Feb. 28.