Northampton didn't make Sweet 16, but will be a team to watch in the winter

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The best team not to make today's Sweet 16 at SportsFest's A-Town Throwdown?
It very well might be Northampton.
The Konkrete Kids went 2-1, rebounding from a buzzer-beater loss to Reading on Friday night with a 36-34 win over Ben Franklin of Philadelphia and a 39-31 victory over Saucon Valley on Saturday.
Based on point differential, the K-Kids just missed the cut of getting into the Sweet 16, but it was still a satifisfying couple of weekends for Northampton coach Coy Stampone and the K-Kids.
Northampton was 3-2 and made it to Sunday at the Stellar tournament. Along the way, the K-Kids defeated Central Catholic, one of their future twice-a-year-rivals in the new Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
This is clearly not the same program that went 3-19 three times in the previous four seasons and hasn't made the District 11 tournament since going 13-10 in 2009-10.
Most encouraging is that two of the rising stars are freshman Aidan Ellwood and sophomore Morgan Heffelfinger, who made the game-winning shot against Ben Franklin on Saturday.
Ellwood had 16 against Reading.
"We're trying to mesh those two with the older kids and the chemistry is coming," Stampone said. "We're also 5-5 in the Stellar Summer League. I like it, but it's still summer, though. You don't know if the teams you are playing have everybody, but at least our kids are battling. That's the main thing. We don't fold up when things get tough."
Stampone, who is entering his third season at Northampton after one year at Pen Argyl, was happy to see teams from outside the EPC during the A-Town Throwdown.
"You want to play good competition," he said. "That's what you want out of the summer, the chance to get better."
It's not going to be easy for Northampton next winter in the new EPC divisional alignment. Northampton will be in the same division as Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, Central Catholic and Nazareth.
Every one of those teams made it to the Sunday's Sweet 16 at the Throwdown and the K-Kids will have 10 games against them.
"It is what it is and you just have to go play," Stampone said. "It's baby steps. We're going into our third year and we're going in the right direction. But again, we have to carry what we're doing now into the regular season."
In addition to Ellwood and Heffelfinger, Northampton will feature returning starters in Garrett Oplinger and A.Q. McNeil. Point guard Basem Azar is another to watch.
Heffelfinger, a 6-foot-3 small forward who played mostly JV ball last year, senses good things happening.
"Northampton basketball is much improved," he said. "We brought a lot of momentum into this weekend from Stellar and tried to build on it. The older guys have accepted the younger players and we all get along well. We're building something here."