CHESTER, Pa. - Sitting at home over the holidays, Northampton Head Coach Brennan McCarthy wasn't sure what the second half of the season would hold for his Spartans.  His team was 7-7 at the break with some quality wins and some head-scratching losses ... two months later McCarthy and his Spartans are conference champions after defeating Delaware County Community College 95-89 in overtime on Tuesday night at Widener University.  

"I honestly wasn't sure what to think," remarked McCarthy, "I knew we had the talent to compete and that we had a great core of sophomore leaders, but we just needed to be more consistent."  And consistent they have been ... going 11-1 since returning from break and finding themselves on top of the Eastern Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (EPAC) standings for the second time in program history (2012-13).  Asked what he thought the difference was, McCarthy replied, "The guys really bought in ... there was no secret potion, it was just eight guys and a coaching staff that had one goal in mind ... hopefully this is just the beginning."

Jerrel Burke (Morrisville, PA/Pennsbury ) led the Spartans with 29 points and Isiah Hinton-Gray (Allentown, PA/William Allen ) added 23 as the Spartans held off the Phantoms in the extra session.  "The guys refused to lose tonight," remarked McCarthy, "they wanted to be champions and tonight they earned the right to be called that."

Juan Perez-Jones (Morrisville, PA/Pennsbury ) added 12 points and Tyerell Mann (East Stroudsburg, PA /Notre Dame - East Stroudsburg ) had 14 for Northampton, which improves to 18-8 overall, 16-5 in Region XIX and 15-3 in the conference. 

Delaware, which won the conference title in 2013-14, finishes the regular season at 14-12 overall, 13-8 in Region XIX and 13-5 in the EPAC. 

The Spartans now wait to find out their seed and opponent for the upcoming Region XIX Tournament.  Seedings are scheduled to be released on Wednesday at noon.