The NOC men rallied from 15 down in the second half falling just short losing to NEO 74-69 at Foster-Piper Fieldhouse Thursday night.

NOC (18-10) dropped its second straight and fell to 9-5 and in third place in the OCAC.  NEO (22-6) remains in first place with a 12-2 league mark.

NOC trailed by as many as 12 in the first half before rallying to down 39-33 at half.

The Norse built the lead to 51-36 before the Mavs rallied late cutting the NEO lead to 70-69 on two free throws by Khobe Austin-Johnson with :14.9 left in the game.

After NEO made two free throws to lengthen to lead to 72-69, the Mavs had a late turnover with :04.8 left to clinch the win for NEO.

Omar Boone, Elafayette Stone, and Deon Berrien had 13 points each for the Mavs.

NOC travels to Murray State on Monday night at 7:30 p.m.

"I'm definitely disappointed in the outcome but I give our guys credit for fighting hard and giving ourselves a chance at the end," said coach Donnie Jackson.  "I thought we did some good things against their zone just some turnovers hurt us in key spots and NEO hit some timely shots."

"We have Murray next, we are both wrestling for seeding in the standings," Jackson added.  "We need to find a way to secure a win and lock up the third seed (upcoming region tournament)."

Sophomores Deon Berrien, Khobe Austin-Johnson, Omar Boone, Keiodre Perry, Elafayette Stone, and Trevion Lamar were honored on sophomore night.

 NEO 74, Mavs 69

                     1     2—Total

NEO              39   35--  74

Mavs             33   36--  69

NEO—R. Williams 20, K. Lukasiewicz 15, S. Cele 15, R. Moody 8, D. Van Eyck 6, J. Morris 4, Van Putten 2, R. Williams 2, K. Benford 2.

Mavs – O. Boone 13, E. Stone 13, D. Berrien 13, K. Austin-Johnson 11, K. Perry 10, M. Lee 4, B. Tanner 3, D. Bankston 2.