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."
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