Box Score PATERSON, NJ - The Northampton men's basketball team dropped their 2015-16 season opener, 71-68, at Passaic County Community College on Thursday evening at Panther Hall. 

Despite a 30 for 37 effort from the foul line, 28 turnovers doomed the freshman-laden Spartans, who led by one at the half.  "We made alot of freshman mistakes," commented Head Coach Brennan McCarthy, "the effort was good, we just didn't execute well enough to win.  These guys saw tonight the difference between high school and college ... guys are stronger, bigger and quicker ... now it's time for them to start making the necessary adjustments in their game to become successful."

Northampton fell behind by 11 with 7 minutes to play in the second half, but rallied to cut the margin to 3 and had two shots to tie the game with 17 seconds remaining.  "We fought back and got ourselves in a position to tie the game, the shots just didn't drop," lamented McCarthy.

Juan Perez Jones had a team-high 22 points, Edwin Lopez (East Stroudsburg, PA /Stroudsburg ) added 10, Bryson Walton (Allentown, PA /William Allen ) 9 and Alquinton McNeil (Northampton, PA/Northampton ) 6 to lead the Spartans.  Anthony Miller (Bethlehem, PA /Liberty) led Northampton on the glass with 9 rebounds, while Joe Cartagena (East Stroudsburg, PA /East Stroudsburg North ) had 6 and Justin Kellman (Reading, PA/Reading ) 5.  Bryson Walton (Allentown, PA /William Allen ) had a game-high 5 assists.  

The Spartans, 0-1, travel to Onondaga Community College this weekend to compete in the Lazer Invitational.  Northampton will face Bunker Hill Community College at 5:00pm on Saturday in their first round matchup. 

BOX SCORE - Paterson, NJ - Panther Hall - November 5, 2015

Teams	1st Half	2nd Half	Final
Northampton (0-1)	28	40	68
Passaic (2-0)	27	44	71