The St. Thomas Aquinas men's basketball team beat Mercy College, 68-60.  Justin Brown paced all scorers with 22 points and 16 rebounds.  Irin Stark and Jamie Blanchard added 13 and 10 points respectively.  Daniel Skinner had 9 points and 3 assists.

Kadeem King scored a layup to close out the first half and give STAC a 38-33 lead.  Brown had 16 of STAC's 38 points behind 6-9 shooting from the floor and 2-2 from behind the arc.  Mercy regained a one point lead at 16:45 behind a layup from James Mindingall.  The Spartans answered with an 11-3 run as Irin Stark drained a 3-pointer at 12:36 to put STAC ahead, 53-46.  A layup from Blanchard with 5:25 remaining gave STAC a 63-53 lead.  A jumper by King with 2:00 left kept STAC ahead ten, 65-55 as the Spartans closed the game out strong. 

STAC held a 19-14 advantage on the boards.  Jason Halloway added 4 rebounds and 2 steals for the Spartans.  All seven Spartans that played scored to balance out their attack. 

STAC will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Felician College on Saturday at 3:00 PM.