BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Northampton Women's Basketball team fell short on Saturday afternoon in a battle with Region 19 front-runner and nationally-ranked Passaic County Community College, 69-59, at the Arthur L. Scott Center.

The Spartans and the 14th ranked Panthers locked into a battle in the first quarter of action. The Spartans jumped out to a quick 10-0 early lead and fought a fierce comeback by the Panthers to hold on to a 10-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The back and forth continued into the 2nd quarter with Passaic continuing to build steady momentum and settling on a 31-25  edge over the Spartans at the intermission. Both teams battled through the second half but the Spartans, despite outscoring the Panthers in the 4th quarter, could not close the gap on the visitors and came up just short for the tough loss.

"This was a tough one today," stated Spartans Head Coach Carly Gallagher, "Very simple. We just need to regroup and move forward. We still have a lot of basketball ahead of us."

Sophomore Layle Sweatte led the Spartans with 24 points and 5 rebounds. Sweatte hit a jumper with 6:37 remaining in the 2nd quarter for her 1,000 career point for Northampton. The sophomore guard is only the 2nd player in Northampton Women's Basketball history to reach the 1,000 point scoring mark in her career. Former Spartan standout Dom Moser (2016-17, 2017-18) holds the career scoring mark with 1,125 points.

Spartan freshman center Nia Brown (Bethlehem, PA/Executive Charter) recorded a hard earned double-double in the loss, scoring 16 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, while Neoshe Perez (Bath, PA/Executive Charter) scored 5 points and recorded 14 boards. Guard Abymarie Colon (Easton, PA/Wilson) scored 10 points with 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Joey-Madison Shaul (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and Zeriah Hinson (Sharon Hill, PA/Academy Park) each had 7 rebounds.

The Spartans fall to 13-6 overall and 8-4 in the Region with the loss.

Passaic improves to 15-3 overall and 12-2 in the Region.

Northampton is back in action on Tuesday, February 3rd when the host nationally-ranked RCSJ-Gloucester in a Region 19 contest at 5pm at the Arthur L. Scott Center.