The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team battled to a 78-70 victory in an East Coast Conference match-up at New York Tech. The Spartans, ranked #13 nationally by the NABC and #9 by D2SIDA, have now won five straight to improve to 15-2 overall and 5-0 in the ECC, with New York Tech dropping to 2-14, 1-4.

All five starters registered double-figures for STAC, led by Demetre Roberts with a game-high 16 points, with Sekou Cisse (15), Osbel Caraballo (12), Louis Griffith (11), and Grant Singleton (10) all contributing to the balanced effort. Laurynus Stonkus paced NYIT with 15, with Brandon Redendo adding 11.

Singleton's three-pointer capped a 7-0 game-opening run for the Spartans, but Stonkus reeled off seven points in an 11-0 outburst, giving Tech a 13-9 advantage after seven minutes of play. STAC answered the wakeup call with a 13-2 run of their own to grab 22-16 edge, but the Bears continued to chip away, drawing to within 37-36 at intermission.

Cisse, Singleton and Griffith scored in quick succession to start the second half, and the remainder of the affair saw New York Tech draw as close as five points on several occasions, only to see STAC answer quickly to get the lead back into double-digits. Cisse led all players with nine rebounds as St. Thomas Aquinas outrebounded the hosts by a narrow 39-36 edge.

The Spartans return to Aquinas Hall for their next two contests, both in ECC action, starting on Saturday, January 18 vs. Queens College. Game time is set for approximately 3:30, as the back end of double-header action with the women's teams squaring off at 1:00. That sets the stage for a showdown of the top two teams in the conference standings at the University of Bridgeport pays a call for a 7:30 pm start, after women's action at 5:30.