NANTICOKE, Pa. - It wasn't easy, but the Northampton men's basketball team accomplished their mission on Sunday afternoon, downing host Luzerne County Community College, 90-84, to clinch at least a share of the EPAC championship.  The Spartans, 14-3 in conference play, will travel to Delaware County Community College (13-4 in conference) on Tuesday night for a chance to win the title outright.  A victory gives Northampton the title outright, while a loss would create create co-champions.

In order to set up that scenario, the Spartans needed to first knock-off a pesky Trailblazer squad, who despite being out of playoff contention, gave it all they had.  "Credit Luzerne," commented Northampton Head Coach Brennan McCarthy, "they had nothing to play for today, but they worked their tails off and gave us real test.  Obviously, we knew what they were capable of ... they can score with anyone and that concerned me given that we didn't have Tyerell Mann (East Stroudsburg, PA /Notre Dame - East Stroudsburg ) in the lineup today.  But we had a couple guys step up when it counted and we were able to fight through some adversity and put ourselves in a good position going into Tuesday."

Jerrel Burke (Morrisville, PA/Pennsbury ) led the Spartans with 21 points, while Justin Kellman (Reading, PA /Reading ) added 17, Isiah Hinton-Gray (Allentown, PA/William Allen ) 16, Justin Kusiappouh (East Stroudsburg, PA /East Stroudsburg North ) 14 and Juan Perez-Jones (Morrisville, PA/Pennsbury ) 13. 

Northampton is now 17-8 overall, 15-5 in Region XIX and 14-3 in conference. 

Luzerne falls to 10-19 overall, 8-13 in Region XIX and 7-10 in the EPAC. 

The Spartans will travel to Widener University on Tuesday to face the Phantoms at 8pm and then await their next opponent when the basketball committee meets on Wednesday to seed the tournament.