The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team overcame an early deficit to take a 97-92 East Coast Conference victory at Queens in overtime. Chaz Watler led all scorers with a career-high 27 points to move his team to 4-5 overall and 2-1 in the ECC, while Queens dropped to 0-9, 0-3.

STAC's offense started on fire, hitting 7-of-10 from the field to open an early 18-10 lead. Though they entered the game in search of their first win of the season, Queens roare back, stunning the Spartans with a 23-4 outburst, to grab a 33-22 lead with eight minutes to play in the half. A pair of threes by Aaron Cust helped the visitors regain their composure, and Shaq McFarlane's bucket in the waning seconds sent the teams to halftime tied at 39-39.

Now the battle was on, as the lead changed hands several times and neither team carried a lead in excess of three points over the first 10 minutes of the second half. A pair of Jeremiah Mordi foul shots put the Knights in a 54-52 lead, but Marcus Henderson would cap a 7-0 STAC run with a shot from beyond the arc to give the Spartans a 59-54 edge. That lead would last about a minute, as Diego Maldonado's trey brought the Knights back even at 60-60.

With just over a minute to play in regulation, Watler's pair from the stripe put STAC up by three, but Paul Little would hit from downtown in the final seconds to send the game to extra time. Little opened the scoring in OT with another three-pointer, but that would be the home squad's last hurrah as the Spartans reeled off the next 10 straight. STAC would put the contest away from the charity stripe, draining their last 10 free throws and 15-of-16 overall in the final minutes.

Joining Watler among the five STAC players in double-figures was Henderson (18 points), Aaron Cust (16), James Mitchell (11) and Jules de Courtenay (10). Mordi and Maldonado paced Queens with 25 each, with Anthony Hodges adding 14. While STAC was a respectable 9-24 (38%) from beyond the arc, the Knights stayed in the game with an unconscious 15-28 (53%) sharpshooting performance. The Spartans helped themselves at the foul line, converting 34-of-43 for 79% on the night.

The Spartans play their third of four in a row on the road in an ECC tussle at Molloy College on Saturday, December 20, at 1:00 pm. The complete their road swing the following day, traveling to Felician College for a non-conference battle at 2:00 on Sunday, December 21. After the holiday break, they close out 2014 as the back end of a New Year's Eve double-header at Aquinas Hall, hosting Stonehill College on December 31.