The St. Thomas Aquinas College basketball teams were well represented in East Coast Conference post-season awards announced this week. Chaz Watler was a First Team All-Conference selection and Justin Reyes was named Rookie-of-the-Year, with Jenna Erickson taking Rookie honors on the women's side.
Watler was a standout in a tremendous team effort, with the Spartans earning a 20-10 overall record and taking its first ever ECC Regular Season Championship. The sophomore from Brooklyn, NY - last year's conference Rookie-of-the-Year, led the team in scoring with a 14.7 ppg average, led the squad in points in 14 contests, including a 32-point outburst in a 95-87 victory over Daemen on January 16 at Aquinas Hall.
Reyes earned the top Rookie honor in the conference, the second straight year a Spartan has taken the award, emerging from a handful of outstanding candidates on his own team's roster. The Havermill, MA, native was the only other STAC player to average double-figures in ppg, posting 11.1 per contest, while leading the team with 6.5 rebouds per game.
Marcus Henderson was also among the Spartans earning recognition, earning a slot on the All-Conference Honorable Mention team for the second time in his two years at STAC. The diminutive-but-feisty point guard averaged 9.2 ppg this season, while placing in the conference top 10 in assists and steals.
Erickson showed tremendous poise for the Lady Spartans, who returned to the ECC Tournament after a one season absence and have advanced to the semi-finals with an opening-round victory. The product of Melrose, NY, led her team in scoring with 13.4 ppg, but perhaps more impressively, also was tops on the squad in minutes played with over 32 per game while running the point. Erickson was third in the entire ECC in three-pointers with 62, and fifth in assists with 101. Jenna was also named to the All-Conference Honorable Mention team, the only freshman to earn All-Conference recognition.
St. Thomas Aquinas is the only institution in this year's ECC Tournament to have both a men's and a women's team in the semi-finals. They will be playing back-to-back games on Saturday, March 7, at LIU Post. The #6 Lady Spartans take on #2 Queens College in a 2:30 pm tip, followed at 5:00 by the top seeded men's team battling #4 seed and tournament host LIU Posts. Winners of all of Saturday semi-finals advance to Sunday's championship games.