12/9/21
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – The Lackawanna College Women's Basketball team gets back to work and in action on Thursday, December 9^th against #13 Northampton Community College at the Lackawanna Student Union. The game will tip at 5:00pm ET.
 
About The Falcons
The Falcons (2-3) got back on track with a 98-70 win over Delaware Tech CC in their last game this past weekend. In that contest, Lackawanna College had five players in double-figures as it built a 14-point lead after one quarter, a 20-point lead at halftime, and as high as 29 points in the second half. The Falcons shot 52% from the field, and scored 43 bench points as a team, including 18 points from Daeja Cromartie and 10 points from Mahogony Collins. Gabrielle Jackson led the Falcons with 20 points, while Nya Morris added 17 points and Ashante Amos scored 10 points for the Falcons.    
 
Nya Morris is the team-leader at 17.3 points per game so far this year.  She had a season-high in the win over Howard Community College to open the season. Already a one-time EPAC Player of the Week, Morris also leads the team with 2.3 steals per game, and is hitting on 49% of her shots this year. Gabrielle Jackson is second on the team with 14.0 points per game, scoring in double-figures in her last four games, including her season-high 21 against Union County College. Jackson averages a team-high 4.2 assists per game. McKeyah Duley is third with 8.0 points per game, buoyed by her 25-point outburst against Essex. Duley had four points in the win at Delaware Tech. She leads the Falcons with seven made 3PT FGs on the year. Mahogony Collins is averaging a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game, to go with her 6.0 points per game. She is also the team-leader in blocks, with eleven in five games.
 
Lackawanna College is shooting at 41.9% as a team in its first five games, and the Falcons are shooting 30.8% from beyond-the-arc. Lackawanna is also shooting at 61.4% from the free-throw line. Lackawanna College holds a +4 rebounding margin, and has 15 blocks as a team. The Falcons are holding their opponents to just 33.8% shooting so far this year, and teams have only hit 22.3% of their three-point attempts against the Lackawanna College defense.
 
Head Coach Joya Whittington enters her eighth season at the helm for the Falcons, winning three district championships and making three NJCAA National Tournament appearances, all within the last five seasons. Whittington is a three-time District Coach of the Year, and has won 151 games in her coaching career at Lackawanna College. Whittington is a Seton Hill University graduate, and a Carbondale, PA native, where she played for Carbondale Area HS.
 
About the Opponents
The Northampton Community College Spartans come into the contest at 7-3 so far this season. The Spartans are ranked at #13 in the NJCAA Division III this week, and are 6-0 in Region XIX this year, including 1-0 against Division II opponents, with a previous win over Raritan Valley CC. The Spartans are coming off a ten-point loss at home to Penn State Lehigh Valley, 81-71, on Tuesday evening. A tight-game into the fourth quarter, the Spartans shot 41% from the field in the final frame, but were undone by 44 turnovers in the contest, and by PSU going 10-for-14 from the free throw line down the stretch. The Nittany Lions had 19 steals, and scored 32 points off of those 44 turnovers. Raquel Costache led the Spartans with 17 points, while reigning NJCAA DIII Player of the Week Briona McClain had 10 points and a season-high 26 rebounds. Ashley Cyrus scored 15 points off the bench, while Xion Spence was the fourth player in double-figures with 10 points of her own. The Spartans shot just 34% from the field in the contest, and were 16-for-29 from the free throw line in the game.  
 
On the year, Northampton is averaging around 68 points per game, while holding opponents to just 49 points per game on the year. As a team, the Spartans are shooting 38%, while holding their opponents to 30% from the field. The Spartans have a 20+ rebounding margin on the year, but are averaging 24.6 turnovers per game.
 
Northampton are well-balanced on offense, with three players in double-figures and a total of ten different players averaging six or more points per game. The aforementioned Cyrus is the team-leader in scoring this year, averaging 13.8 points per game. Cyrus has only played in four games this year, and her appearance off the bench against PSU Lehigh Valley was her first game back after a month off. Cyrus has hit double-figures in three of her four games, and had a season-high 17 points against Raritan Valley CC.
 
McClain is second on the team with 12.1 points, but is by far the team leader with 16 rebounds per game this year. She's second in the NJCAA in rebounds per game, third in the NJCAA in defensive rebounds per game (10.0), and tied for fourth in offensive rebounds per game (6.0). McClain has scored in double-figures in five games this season, including season-high 24 points against CC of Philadelphia, where she went 9-for-13 from the field, while pulling down 18 rebounds. McClain has pulled down double-digit rebounds in six straight games, including her season-best 26 against PSU Lehigh Valley. She grabbed 22 rebounds against Sussex CC last week. For her efforts against Philadelphia and Sussex, McClain won NJCAA Division III Player of the Week, scoring 32 points and snagging 40 rebounds in the two games, combined. McClain is also second on the team with 10 blocks on the season.
 
Alayna Day is third on the team with 11.0 points per game this year. Day is tied for the team lead in assists with 18 on the season, and averages around 4.6 rebounds per game. She's also second on the team with 2.1 assists per game. Day scored in double-figures in seven games this year, and her season-high was 17 points against Montgomery CC on November 20^th, where she also pulled down seven rebounds (also a season-high). Day had just four points against Penn State Lehigh Valley in her last game.
 
Deovion Yates is fourth on the team with 9.3 points per game, and is the team-leader in steals per game at 3.6 this year. Yates has scored in double-figures three times this year, including her season-high of 20 points against Lehigh Carbon CC earlier this year. Yates had a season-high six steals twice this season, against both Lehigh Carbon CC and Passaic. Yates also had a season-best six assists against Passaic, as well. Yates had six points, five rebounds, and four assists against PSU Lehigh Valley.
 
Xion Spence is averaging 8.6 points per game, and is second on the team at 11.1 rebounds per game this year. The ten points she scored against PSU Lehigh Valley was the fourth time she hit double-figures on the year. Spence had a season-high 21 points against Lehigh Carbon CC. She also had a season-high 24 rebounds in that game. She's hit double-figures in rebounds this year four times, and has two double-doubles on the season.
 
The head coach for Northampton is Terrence Bomar, in his first official season at the helm for the Spartans. Bomar was hired in April of 2020, and helped guide the program through the COVID-19 pandemic, despite not playing during the 2020-2021 campaign. Prior to his hiring at Northampton, Bomar was a volunteer assistant coach at both Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg North HS boys basketball programs. Before that, he was an assistant at Lackawanna College from 2016 through 2018, helping coach Joya Whittington and the Falcons to a combined 44 wins in two seasons, including an appearance in the NJCAA Tournament in the 2016-2017 season. Bomar also spent time as the head girls basketball coach at East Stroudsburg North for four seasons, prior to his time at Lackawanna. Bomar is a 2006 graduate of Kutztown University, where he majored in Sport Management, and he has since earned a pair of master's degrees from East Stroudsburg (Master of Education in elementary education in 2010, Master of Administration Leadership in 2018).
 
Game Information
The match-up is set for a 5:00pm tip-off at the Lackawanna Student Union in Scranton, PA on Thursday, December 9^th.
 
Falcons fans are invited out to celebrate the Christmas season, as there will be giveaways, food, and pictures with LC Claus. Tickets for the game will be sold at the door, and are $5 (Adults) and $3 (Students). Lackawanna College students will be admitted for free with their student ID. For a reminder about the Lackawanna College spectator policy, please click HERE.
 
The game will be video livestreamed on the Lackawanna College YouTube Channel, for those who cannot attend. Steve Young will hand the play-by-play, while Sports Information Director Tom Ferguson will provide the color commentary. You can see the stream HERE.
 
The women's basketball team is still selling lottery tickets between now and December 17^th. Tickets are twenty dollars ($20) and play off of the January 2022 Pennsylvania Lottery Evening Pick 3 Daily Number. All prizes are cash, and winners have an opportunity to win anywhere from $75 to $250.
 
Anyone interested in purchasing tickets can email coach Joya Whittington at whittingtonj@lackawanna.edu, or flag down a women's basketball player.