The game itself was far from a thing of beauty, but the result could not have looked more perfect to the Konkrete Kids as their boys basketball team knocked off Liberty 34-25 in an EPC tournament semifinal game Monday night at the PPL Center in Allentown.

The Hurricanes scored on their first possession of the game after holding the ball for almost a minute and a half. Northampton equalized at the five-minute mark and that was all the scoring in the first quarter.

The 2-2 deadlock paved the way for the teams to combine for the lowest scoring playoff game in EPC tournament history.

“That was Liberty’s pace of play. That’s the way they wanted to play. That’s what they needed to do to try to beat us. Credit to them, they got us off kilter. We told our guys at halftime, ‘We’re comfortable playing that way.’ I mean, I played at Whitehall. We’ll play whatever way you want,” explained head coach Matt Scholl.

In the second quarter, Leo Regec and Ethan Raphun combined for all 10 of the Kids’ points to push them to a 12-8 advantage at the intermission.

In the third, the K-Kids once again scored 10 points split between two players. Jake Raysely scored a big and-1 in the middle of the period and Korbin Sollars scored all 7 of his points in the frame, including a controversial shot that barely left his fingertips before the horn ending the period.

“I thought I got it off in time. I saw the red (light around the backboard) go off. I’m glad it counted. It helped a lot,” said Sollars.

The bucket gave Northampton a 22-18 cushion going into the final quarter.

However, Liberty started to use their size advantage early in the fourth as they went on a 5-0 run over the first two minutes of the period to take a 23-22 lead.

The Hurricanes went up 25-24 with 5 minutes left in the contest, but little did they know that was the last time they would score.

Brady Simock scored the go-ahead basket with 3:05 left in the game. A minute later, Noah Walakovits came up with a big block on the defensive end and went coast-to-coast for a layup to put the Kids up by three.

Regec and Simock went a combined 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the game’s closing minute to put the game on ice.

Thursday the K-Kids will look to defend their EPC crown against Parkland at 8 p.m. at the PPL Center. The Trojans had a come-from-behind 51-46 win against Nazareth in the other semifinal. Parkland defeated Northampton 42-37 back on Dec. 16 to hand the Kids one of their 4 losses this season.

NHS 2 10 10 12 - 34

LHS 2 6 10 7 - 25

Northampton scoring: Brady Simock 8, Leo Regec 8, Korbin Sollars 7, Noah Walakovits 4, Ethan Raphun 4, Jake Raysely 3