SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. - The Northampton men's basketball team held on for a thrilling 89-87 victory over Lehigh Carbon Community College on Tuesday evening at Berrier Hall, behind a 24 point, 6 rebound effort from sophomore Jaylonn Tullis.

The Spartans trailed 36-34 at halftime, but some adjustments by the coaching staff during intermission led to NCC taking a 38-36 lead  within the first minute of the second half, which they extended to 47-38 by the 17:37 mark.

Northampton looked to have gained the upper hand when they took an 11 point lead at 64-53 at the 11:27 mark, before the Cougars rallied to tie the game at 72 with just over 5 minutes remaining.

NCC sophomore Zack Hankerson hit a floater in the lane with 56 seconds remaining to give the Spartans an 86-81 lead. 

The Cougars then used pressure defense to cut the margin to 88-87 with 9 seconds remaining, but Dontae Davis (23 points) hit 1 out of 2 free throws to seal the 89-87 victory.

"The kids really played hard tonight," commented Head Coach Kevin Foley, "LCCC is good, they have some outstanding players and really gave us all we could handle tonight.  The real turning point was the fact that we only turned the ball over 4 times in the second half, compared to 14 in the first half."

Northampton improves to 6-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play.

Frank DeJesus scored 33 points to lead Lehigh Carbon, which falls to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in conference.

NCC returns to action on Thursday evening when they host Ocean County College at 7:30pm on "Coach Foley Look-a-Like" Night.