After a puzzling 1-3 start to the season the Northampton boys basketball team has fully turned their season around winning 8 games in row and 11 out of their last 12 to bring their record to 12-4 heading into the home stretch before the EPC and district playoffs.

Head coach Coy Stampone explained the turnaround.

“They’re having more fun but we’re healthy,” he said. “I never harped on it, but we had kids coming off the football field that needed to get their basketball legs and we had some minor injuries and illnesses. It’s a lot better now.”

While Saturday’s game against Blue Mountain lacked the drama of the team’s recent dramatic EPC wins, the 67-57 win did secure a district berth.

The K-Kids went on a 7-0 run in the last two minutes of the first period to claim a 19-7 lead after the first quarter.

From there the lead oscillated within a narrow band, never going above 16 points and never falling below 9. Northampton led 33-23 at the half and 50-39 after the third quarter.

Lucas Lesko had a monster game, scoring a game-high 23 points on 9 of 13 shooting. He pulled down 17 rebounds, recorded 7 blocks and slammed home a crowd-pleasing dunk with 3:49 left in the game to put an exclamation point on the win.

Isaac Harris scored 17 points. Isaiah Harris had 8. Caden Reph and Jackson Fehnel both scored 6. Tristen Pinnock had 5 and Cooper King had 2.

On Friday during the K-Kids’ buzzer-beating win over Allen, Isaac Harris became the seventh male 1,000-point scorer in Northampton history. Harris described the feeling.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It was a dream come true. I’ve been working at this a long time. It was a magical night.”

He went on to talk about trying to bring the K-Kids their first district crown in boys basketball since 1972.

“It would bring everyone full circle,” he said. “We’ve been wanting this a long time. We’ve been very close a lot of times. This team has the potential. We just have to put the pieces together.”

The K-Kids have a big week ahead as they host Central Catholic for Senior Night on Friday. It will be an opportunity to avenge a 59-45 loss early in the season. On Saturday, Catasauqua visits Pete Schneider Gymnasium for a make up game after a Dec. 27 postponement. On Tuesday the team travels to Parkland. The Trojans took the opener 58-37 on Dec. 14 which seems like it happened in a different season the way the Kids are playing now.