It’s not often that a basketball team goes the first 11:22 of a game before scoring their first basket and still manages to win the game, but that’s what happened Monday night in Pete Schneider Gymnasium as Northampton and Whitehall hooked up in the first round of their Cement Belt contests in 2024.

It took a dramatic 4-point play by sophomore Noah Walakovits with 24.6 left in the game for the Konkrete Kids to finally overcome being shut out in the first quarter as they claimed an important EPC win 35-32.

“That’s a huge game. I think everybody knew that going in. In our division, we’ve got 5 teams that are capable of going pretty far. To get one inside the division is absolutely huge,” said Northampton head coach Matt Scholl.

He added, “And it didn’t look good. It didn’t look good for almost four quarters, but guys battled. They played defense the entire game just like animals. It was all defense. I played at Whitehall, coached at Whitehall. I think we go into the game saying the same thing, ‘Muck it up. Play good defense and hope you can make more shots.’ 35-32 is not pretty, but it looks better when our score is on top.”

Whitehall did shut the K-Kids out in the first quarter, but they probably should have held a lead larger than 6-0 after the first 8 minutes. They used their size advantage to dominate the glass, ringing up 7 offensive rebounds in the period. But 3 for 13 shooting kept the margin within reach.

Walakovits’ end of game heroics notched the Kids’ winning point, but J.J. Kolumber’s fall-away 3 at the first half buzzer to knot the game at 11 gave the K-Kids some positive vibes heading into the locker room at intermission.

Luke Keppel scored 7 of his game-high 16 points to lead the Zephyrs to a 13-9 advantage in third quarter scoring and stake them to a 24-20 lead heading to the final period.

Whitehall scored the first point of the fourth quarter, but two Northampton baskets trimmed the lead to a single point, setting up a dramatic final four minutes.

Ethan Ringenberger drained a three at 3:36 to go to put the Zephyrs up by 4 once again. Brody Graff scored a layup in transition and then nailed a trey from the left corner to give Northampton a 1-point lead with 2:30 remaining.

AJ Hines found Talon Dogmanits cutting down the lane for a basket and foul shot that gave Whitehall a 2-point lead with 1:14 to go. Dogmanits added another free throw at :33 to extend the lead, but from there it was all K-Kids as Walakovits hit his big shot from the right corner and free throw. Graff added another layup as Northampton smothered Keppel’s attempted drive for the go-ahead points.

Walakovits discussed his game-changing moment, “It feels great. I couldn’t really get it going in the first half, but it feels great to hit a shot and seal the game out. It’s big. Coach always tells me I have the green light and I try to shoot it as much as I can when I’m open.”

Whitehall had already become the first EPC school to clinch a district playoff berth with their win against North Schuylkill on Saturday. The Zephyrs are 11-3 overall, 5-3 in the EPC.

The K-Kids moved to 8-3 on the season, 5-3 in conference play.