MAYS LANDING, NJ - Atlantic Cape Community College jumped out a 12 point hafltime lead and extended it to 20 early in the second half before fending off a furious Spartan rally, to earn a 90-86 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Northampton trailed by 20 with 17 minutes remaining before cutting the lead to 2 with 21 seconds remaining, but the Buccaneers converted two free throws to take the heart-pounding win.

"It's tough to work so hard and come from that far back and fall short," remarked NCC head coach, Kevin Foley, "but the reality is that we put ourselves in that position ... if we would have played better in the first half and early in the second, we would not have had to expend so much energy getting out the hole we dug for ourselves."

Sophomore Ralph Padilla scored 25 points and Nick Nickle added 23 (7 for 11 from behind the arc) for the Spartans, who were playing their first game since December 22nd.

Dontae Davis added 16 points, including a 10 for 12 performance from the foul line.

The loss drops NCC to 6-10 overall and 5-8 in Region XIX.

Atlantic Cape solidifies their hold on 4th place in the Region, improving to 11-8 overall and 10-5 in the conference.

NCC travels to Camden County College on Tuesday night.