The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team fell to a 67-43 defeat in a non-conference game at Southern New Hampshire University. The Spartans are now 16-10 on the season, with SNHU improving to 17-6 overall.

After coming off Saturday's hard-fought victory over LIU Post, the Spartans never got on track against the Northeast-10's first-place Penmen, with the hosts streaking to a 14-0 edge after just four minutes of action. The deficit slowly expanded from there, with STAC trailing by a 42-15 count at halftime and never making a serious threat to close the gap from that point.

Sam Berlin posted nine points and eight rebounds to lead the Spartans, who had won nine of their previous 10 games. Elijah Bonsignore racked up a game-high 20 points in the impressive showing for SNHU.

All of STAC's final four regular-season games will now be played within the East Coast Conference, where the Spartans retain a share of first place in the standings. On Friday, February 20, they begin their Upstate New York sojurn against Daemen College in an 8:00 start, before facing Roberts Wesleyan in a 4:00 pm tilt the following afternoon. They will travel to face Mercy on Wednesday, February 24 before their regular-season finale, celebrating Senior Day against the University of the District of Columbia on Saturday, February 28.

St. Thomas Aquinas has already clinched its second consecutive ECC Tournament berth and the Spartans need just one victory in their final four contests to secure a first-round bye into the semi finals.