Irin Stark led the way with 17 points and Dane Dixon added 13 off the bench as the St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team held off Queens College, 65-62. The victory snapped a modest two-game skid for the Spartans and saw their record improve to 8-11 overall, 4-5 in the East Coast Conference. Queens saw its record drop to 4-16, 3-7 with the home setback.

The Spartans broke on top early and trailed for just 21 seconds, that coming less than three minutes into the tilt. They built their lead to as many as 13 points at 25-12 on a Dixon jumper with just under eight minutes remaining in the half, but the Knights clawed back to trail just 33-30 at the break.

STAC regained the momentum with the first five points coming out of the locker room to reestablish an edge, but Queens would hang tough, trimming the deficit to as little as two on five different occasions the rest of the way.

Abe Akanmu's jumper - two of his game-high 25 points - with just 1:03 left trimmed his Knights' deficit to 61-58. A Dixon free-throw with 45 ticks left extended the margin to four, but Pat Piasecki converted for Queens to draw back within two with 28 seconds left. Four seconds later, Omar Kellman drained two big foul shots but Akanmu answered with two of his own with :17 left. Justin Brown converted one of two to give QC life, but Daniel Watson's game-tying attempt with time running out was off the mark, preserving the STAC victory. 

Kellman recorded 12 points for STAC, while the Knights received point production from Piasecki (13 points) and Khalil McDonald (11). Both teams shot well from the floor with Queens posting 51% (23-45) and the Spartans responding with 47% (24-51). Queens carried the rebounding edge by a 28-22 margin, while the key for STAC was its ability to take care of the rock, yielding just eight turnovers on the evening.

Tonight's tilt was the Spartans' second of a string of six out of eight on the road, continuing with a return to Aquinas Hall to take on Molloy in a 3:00 pm start this Saturday, February 4. They will then proceed to travel to Dowling College on Wednesday, February 8, with these contests as part of double-headers following games featuring the women's squads.