Fox Chapel ends Northampton’s season in thriller
Isaac Harris was going to get the ball.
Northampton players knew it. Northampton fans knew it. Unfortunately, so did Fox Chapel’s coaching staff.
Harris, who hit numerous big shots throughout the Konkrete Kids’ season, including several game-winners, tried to do it again Wednesday night at Chambersburg Area High School.
But Fox Chapel was ready for the Northampton senior star as it tried to protect a two-point lead in the final seconds of a compelling PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal.
Three Foxes quickly converged on Harris as he dribbled to the top of the key, looking to launch a shot that would send the K-Kids on to Saturday’s semifinals. After he was snuffed by Fox Chapel’s JP Dockey on his first attempt, Harris grabbed the ball off a bounce and tried to fling it up toward the basket as the clockturned to zeroes.
The ball went to the left of the basket and when it hit the ground Northampton’s memorable PIAA run and season was over with a hard-to-take 39-37 defeat to Fox Chapel, a 27-1 team that won the WPIAL title.
Fox Chapel will play Archbishop Wood, an easy winner over North Hills Wednesday night at Chambersburg, in Saturday’s semis.
Meanwhile the Konkrete Kids, who entered the state tournament as District 11’s third seed, finished 21-8.
They had pulled off two remarkable one-point wins in overtime over Methacton and Warwick and were looking for another one-point wonder. A win would have given Northampton the distinction of being the only boys basketball team in school history to reach the state semifinals.
“We had them . ... I really thought we had them,” Konkrete Kids coach Coy Stampone said. “We were up three with under a minute left. You could look at missed foul shots, some tough turnovers and some poor decisions, but I’d rather not focus on that. You look over the course of the game and it was an unbelievable effort by our guys.”
Lucas Lesko, one of eight seniors on the Northampton roster, hit a 3-pointer with 2:05 left to give the K-Kids a 37-34 lead.
Both teams missed free throws. In fact Fox Chapel missed five in a row at one point.
Finally, Fox Chapel star Eli Yofan made two foul shots to get the Pittsburgh power within one with 51 seconds left. Then after Northampton missed at the line at the other end, Yofan hit an outside jumper to give his team the lead with 20 seconds remaining.
Isaiah Harris missed a drive at the other end, Russell Fenton rebounded, was fouled and went to the line with 9.4 seconds left. He made one of two, giving Northampton one last chance at either tying the game or winning it.
Both teams called timeout to set up for the final possession.
“Actually the last play was going to be for Lucas,” Stampone said. “We ran a play like it before at Easton last year where there was going to be a screen coming down for Lucas because we knew they’d be waiting for Isaac. But it wasn’t open and we popped it out to Isaac and they double-teamed
him. It was a very difficult shot.”
Stampone said Harris deserved to take the last shot.
“He earned it because he has made so many clutch shots for us,” Stampone said. “I feel confident with him. But when you double him and then they had some side help as well, it’s really tough. They made a great defensive play. They are well-coached. They saw what we were going to do the first time and called timeout. We tweaked the play a little bit. We just didn’t get the shot we were looking for.”
“They sent three people at me,” Harris said. “They knew who was going to get the ball at the end. I tried to make something happen. The shot just didn’t go down. We’ve had many shots go down for us this year. We just came up a little short, but we battled.”
Harris made three 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 18 points, including 11 in the first half when Northampton fought back from an 8-2 deficit to tie the game at 8 after the first period. It was 21-18 Fox Chapel at halftime, but the K-Kids took the lead in the third quarter at 25-24 off an Isaiah Harris steal and layup.
Isaac Harris closed the third period with a follow to give Northampton a 32-27 lead entering the final period, but Fox Chapel answered with a 7-0 run to start the fourth stanza.
The K-Kids didn’t score until an Isaac Harris drive with 3:10 left to tie the game at 34. The only other points by Northampton in the fourth quarter came on Lesko’s 3-pointer.
“We started the fourth quarter slow and we started slow in the beginning to get down 8-2,” Stampone said. “In a playoff game like this, you’re going to have droughts. Luckily they didn’t pull ahead that much. Fortunately, they were missing shots, too, and we were right there.”
Stampone said the tempo was to Northampton’s liking.
“It was right in our wheelhouse,” he said. “We love playing games in the 30s and 40s. It was a physical game and they let the kids play. Both teams really wanted it bad.”
It was an emotional locker room and a teary-eyed walk down the hallway outside the team’s locker room to where the parents were waiting to greet their kids.
No one wanted to see it end, especially not Stampone who had watched the seniors grow up as players and quality student-athletes.
“These guys were on the middle school team and they came right up through the program,” he said. “Some of them even attended our youth basketball program. We kept setting the bar for them and we always wanted to be one of the elite programs in the area and I think we’ve accomplished that. These kids are not only good basketball players, but they’re excellent students. The average GPA is 3.9. They’re excellent on the court, in the classroom and in the community. They’re something special.”