So much to do; so little time.

That’s the position Freedom’s girls’ basketball team finds itself in this season, the only team in the East Penn Conference that hadn’t seen any competition until this past Monday when they lost to Northampton, 54-38, at Freedom.

“It’s the first game and it counts. Everything is different. There’s nothing that’s anything like we’ve experienced before, so honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. We had to go play the game,” said Freedom coach Dean Reiman. “Wins and losses, everything’s put so much in perspective for this year, they don’t mean as much as they did before. Seeing the kids get to play on their senior night, that’s the most important thing.”

The Patriots’ season has boiled down to a three-week-long one, and for seniors Corrin Gill, Gabby Glick, Kayla Jefferson, Jewel Levy, Elsa Martin, and Brenna Ortwein, it will be more like a three-week-short one after one suspension after another fell on the Pates due to a succession of COVID-19 and weather-related issues.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed the way we came out to compete because [Northampton] wanted the game more than we did. That being said, it’s hard to go from a couple practices to a competitive league game against a good team,” Reiman said.

Three pointers by Freedom’s Kailey Turpening and Levy closed a gap in the first quarter when the K-Kids led by just two points at the end of eight minutes, but seven quick points to open the second quarter by Northampton prompted a timeout for the Pates.

Turpening hit another three coming out of the timeout, but the K-Kids went on an 11-point run, led by Morgan Sterner who scored a game-high 25 points.

“Morgan was tough to stop. She was really dynamic tonight,” said Reiman. “We tried to go zone toward the end of the first half because I just didn’t think we were ready to guard them man-to-man. They were kind of getting to the rim at will, and Morgan was making every shot, but at least in the zone we can kind of take one player away there.”

Martin hit a three pointer early in the third quarter followed by two buckets by Ortwein, but as fast as the momentum seemed to shift toward the Pates, the K-Kids brought it back with four points by Grace Lesko and a basket by Devyn Demchak.

“In the second half, my thought was, who’s ready to play varsity basketball? Who can I put in to see how they react to a varsity game because you never know what’s going to happen at the next practice? A couple kids, you know, contact tracing and they’re out, and all of a sudden now you’ve got to play kids who are not used to it,” Reiman said.

That thought process proved to be successful for Freedom with points scored by Zara Martin, Ciana Feliciano, and Keturah Stewart.

“There’s a lot to take from the game, and you have so many things as a coach, just a million things going through my head right now that we’ve got to get better at, but in the same regard, we play Northampton in two days, so you can’t really look past that, and we have to be specific about the changes that we need to do to be more successful in the next game,” said Reiman.

Ortwein had 10 points for the Patriots, and Gill had five points.

“The kids know, and I keep harping on them, we’re not guaranteed any more games, so I’m really happy we got to play tonight, and if we get another one, we’re just leaving it at that,” Reiman said.

No matter how many games Freedom does or doesn’t get to play, the Patriots, along with all teams in District XI, will get to compete in district playoffs this year.

“So if we only get in six games, I’m glad to hear that all the teams will be in it,” Reiman said.

Freedom will travel to Northampton on Wednesday before traveling to Easton on Thursday. The Pates will then host the Red Rovers on Saturday.