The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team saw its season come to an end with a 71-70 loss to Daemen College at the NCAA Men's Basketball East Region Final in Albany, NY. The Spartans' season comes to a close with a STAC 14-2 overall record and Regular Season and Conference Championships in the ECC, while Daemen is now 10-5 and will make its first-ever Elite Eight appearance.

In Sunday's decisive 95-72 victory over Caldwell, STAC jumped out to an early 10-0 advantage and nearly duplicated that in the finale as four different players scored in an 8-0 run to start the game. The Wildcats rebounded, however, on the strength of a trio of three-pointers by Andrew Mason and 6-for-9 team shooting from beyond the arc combined and early foul trouble on STAC with Grant Singleton tagged with a pair in the first four minutes and team totals to the tune of a 9-2 differential at one point combing to give Daemen a 37-34 halftime lead.

STAC continued the trend with a strong second half start, taking a 40-39 lead on a Grant Singleton lay-up, but Kyle Harris stayed hot, hitting a trio from deep as an 11-0 outburst gave Daemen the largest lead of the night at 50-40. The Spartans turned up the pressure however, as a pair of treys by Demetre Roberts and Jamal Barnes sparked a 10-0 run over a span of just under 90 seconds to tie the score at 50-50 with 13:02 left.

After a quick Andrew Sischo hoop put Daemen back on top, both defenses dug in for a scoreless span of nearly three minutes, broken by a Singleton three to put the Spartans back on top. Barnes struck again from deep and Osbel Caraballo followed with a lay-up to extend STAC's run to 25-10, opening a 65-60 advantage with 4:45 left.

The Wildcats clawed back again as the foul parade continued with a 23-10 margin for the game as Daemen hit 9-of-11 from the line wrapped around a Sischo layup in the final five minutes to take the lead and secure the win. Caraballo led the Spartans with 21 points before fouling out, with Singleton adding 13. Sischo led all scorers with 25 for the Wildcats, with Kyle Harris posting 21.

NCAA Division II Men's Basketball East Region All-Tournament Team

Anthony Cooper - Caldwell

Andrew Sischo - Daemen (was also named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament)

Kyle Harris - Daemen

Osbel Caraballo - St. Thomas Aquinas College

Grant Singleton - St. Thomas Aquinas College