WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Northampton women's basketball team shook off a very sloppy first half to pull away and earn an 89-55 victory over Luzerne County Community College in the Eastern Pennsylvania Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Tuesday night.

The Spartans, who led 36-34 at halftime, committed 15 fouls in the first half, leading to 17 of Luzerne's 34 points.  "We were very sloppy," remarked Head Coach Art Wolfe, "I don't know why, but we got caught reaching and simply not moving our feet which led to a lot of needless fouls.  We finally seemed to shake the cobwebs and play up to our ability in the second half."

NCC scored 10 straight points coming out of the locker room to take a 46-34 advantage and then never looked back in outscoring the Trailblazers 53-21 in the second half.

Alyssa Gibson scored a team-high 21 points and dished out 5 assists and Tiara Aziz added 14 points and 6 rebounds. Tanisha Blake came off the bench to score 12 points, all in the second half.

Northampton improves to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in Region XIX / EPAC.

Luzerne falls to 0-1 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Northampton returns to action on Thursday night when they host Division II Manor College at the Arthur L. Scott Spartan Center.  Tip time is set for 6pm.