The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team suffered its fourth straight defeat, falling short at New York Institute of Technology, 75-66. The Spartans were led by James Ockimey, who recorded 14 points, while Irin Stark added 11 and Omar Kellman had 10.

Tech's victory was a big one, putting a damper on STAC's hopes for an East Coast Conference Tournament bid. The Bears improve to 9-13 overall and 6-7 in ECC play, while the Spartans fall to 8-15, 4-10. St. Thomas Aquinas remains in seventh place, just short of one of the six available tourney slots, with only two ECC games remaining.

After the teams traded buckets at the outset, the hosts embarked on a 10-0 run to open a 14-4 lead. This time, it was the Spartans who would battle back, keyed by three Ockimey jumpers to draw to within 18-17.  As has been their pattern of late, the Spartans watched Tech open an advantage only to close the gap. The Bears would use a buzzer-beating jumper from Antoine Brown to take a 39-29 advantage into the halftime locker room.

The Spartan offense didn't help the cause after the break, accounting for just one field goal and four points over the first six minutes and falling into a 47-33 hole. Again, the Spartans would reel off the next seven points to threaten, but  were not able to close within striking distance. St. Thomas Aquinas was able to draw within three in final two minutes on a Stark trey, but never had possession with chance to tie.

Dominic Scurry's game-high 18 points led four Bears in double-figures, as Antoine Brown and Azel Prather, Jr. added 14 each, and Russell Holloway posted 10. Prather had a game-high nine caroms with Brown and Nick Fessenden clearing eight each. NYIT's offense was the story of the evening, sharpshooting 54% from the field (31-57) to just 40% for STAC (26-65). The Spartans hit 6-of-21 from the perimeter (29%) to 3-12 (25%) for Tech. While the Spartans turned the ball over just four times (to 11 for the home squad), it was NYIT's dominant 42-27 rebounding numbers that spelled a tough defeat for STAC.

Three games remain in the regular season as the Spartans hold out hopes of extending their campaign into the ECC Tournament. They will travel to Caldwell this Saturday, February 18 in a non-conference tilt, then proceed to the University of Bridgeport on Wednesday, February 22nd before hosting Mercy College to wrap up the pre-tournament portion of the schedule on Senior Day, Saturday, February 25 at 3:00 pm. If you can't be on hand to enjoy Alumni Day and all the action of STAC hoops, be sure to watch the game online and follow along with our Live Stats feature. The ECC Tournament begins on Wednesday, February 29 with first round action at high seeds and culminates with the semis and finals at Queens College on Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4.