The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team took first place Dowling College to overtime before falling, 74-62 in an East Coast Conference showdown. Omar Kellman led the Spartans with 18 points but his team dropped its second straight to fall to 10-10, 6-8, while Dowling improved to 19-4, 13-2.

STAC led in the waning minutes and had a chance to win the game but Chaz Watler's last-second attempt was off the mark. Dowling responded with five points in the first 25 seconds of overtime and held the Spartans without a field goal over a span of 7 1/2 minutes to pull away for the victory.

A hard-fought first 20 minutes saw the lead change hands before Dowling grabbed its biggest lead - a mere six points - with a 22-26 edge with just under three minutes remaining. The Spartans would reel off seven of the next eight points, tying the game briefly on an Aaron Cust basket in the final minute, but a Jerrell Harris answer at the buzzer gave the hosts a 35-33 halftime edge.

More of the same was in store for the second half, with the Spartans taking a 49-44 lead only to see the Golden Lions roar back with 10 straign points, answered quickly by STAC pulling back even at 54-54.

After a Leon Taylor lay-up but DC back in the lead, Cust would come up big again, draning a trey to put the visitors ahead at 57-56 with under four minutes to play. Amazingly, that would be the last field goal in regulation play and that narrow lead held up until Darien Davis knotted the score on a free throw with 49 seconds left. The Spartans would have two chances to grab the lead but came up empty, sending the contest to overtime.

Dowling would own the extra session, with a Davis three-pointer just eight seconds in spurring the hosts to a quick 7-0 run, and they would not look back. STAC would continue to be held without a field goal until Eli Maravich hit a trey in the final 30 seconds of OT.

Cust had 14 points and Watler added 11 for the Spartans, while Davis was a force for the Golden Lions with a game-high 27 points, with Taylor adding 18 and Harris 12.

The Spartans are on the road for their next two contests, traveling to face Queens College on Wednesday, February 12 and taking on Molloy College on Saturday, February 15. They return to Aquinas Hall to meet NYIT on Wednesday, February 19 in a 7:30 start, following the completion of the women's game.