The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team dropped their second and final game in the NIT Tip-off Tournament, 70-49 at Stony Brook University. Shaq McFarlan led the Spartans with 13 points. The Spartans fell to 1-4, with Stony Brook improving to 5-2 overall.

After opening their NIT appearance one week earlier against nationally-ranked Gonzaga, the atmosphere was decidedly different against their next opponent as the Spartans battled the Seawolves through a competitive first half. Matt Lee hit a quick three and Chaz Watler followed with a jumper, giving St. Thomas Aquinas an early 5-2 lead.

Stony Brook responded with an 11-0 run to open a 13-5 margin. The Spartan defense came to the fore, however, holding their Division I foes off the board for nearly six minutes, though Aaron Cust's coast-to-coast driving layup only trimmed the margin to 13-9 midway through the half.

Despite hanging tough, the tides turned against the visitors when a terrific defensive stand ended with Carson Puriefoy beating the shot clock at the buzzer to make the score 17-9. That was part of a 12-0 run that put Stony Brook in the driver's seat at 25-9, a lead they would hold for the rest of the session.

Sam Berlin and Shaq McFarlan would post back-to-back hoops to draw to within 29-16, but SBU would expand their advantage to 37-16 on a Kameron Mitchell buzzer-beating trey at the half.

STAC showed its composure after the break, pressuring the Seawolves and recording five of the first seven points after the break, with Lee's baseline jumper highlighting the spurt. Marcus Henderson converted from downtown to make the score 47-28 nine minutes into the second stanza and the fesity Spartans held their foes to 11 points over the first 10 mintues of the half, trailing 48-30.

Moments later, another Henderson bomb would make the deficit 52-36, but that was as close as the Spartans would get, though the teams would each record 33 points in an even second half. Jameel Warney led Stony Brook with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Spartans return to the comfort of Aquinas Hall, where they will host Concordia College on Monday, December 1 in a 7:00 pm non-conference match-up. They will open their East Coast Conference slate in their following contest, on Saturday, December 6, against the University of Bridgeport at 3:30 pm.