The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team pulled away for an 85-70 victory over Stonehill College at USciences. Demetre Roberts poured in a game-high 26 points and Osbel Caraballo added 21 as the Spartans improved to 2-0 on the season, with Stonehill falling to 1-1.

Despite an early scoreless span of over four minutes, the Spartans' defense held tough as the game was tied at 14-14 nearing the midway point of the first half. Osbel Caraballo's lay-up touched off a game-changing 19-2 run in a six minute span, with Louis Griffith and Roberts each hitting a pair of threes to open a 33-16 margin.

STAC retained a 35-30 edge at intermission, but Stonehill chipped away as Will Moreton keyed a 12-2 burst to trim the gap to 46-39 just three minutes into the second half. The Skyhawks closed to within five points at 56-51 midway through the session, but Roberts and Caraballo rallied STAC, with a Roberts 3-pointer virtually putting the game away at 75-61 with just over three minutes to go, putting the finishing touches on the big East Region victory.

In addition to their points production, Roberts was a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line and Caraballo was 5-of-5 to lead four Spartans in double-figures. Griffith added 13 points and Grant Singleton posted 10, while Kevin Lynch cleared a game-high 10 caroms for STAC. Moreton paced Stonehill with 20 points, with Andrew Sims and Brandon Twitty adding 13 each.

The Spartans travel to Goldey Beacom College for another big regional match-up this Wednesday, November 13 at 8:00 pm before visiting Holy Family University in a 3:00 pm tip on Saturday, November 16. They play their home opener in another non-conference battle against Adelphi University on Wednesday, November 20, with game time set for 7:00 pm.