The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team returns to the NCAA Division II Tournament, opening against St. Anselm in a rematch of last year's regional semi-final at 7:30 pm Saturday in Syracuse, NY.
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The Match-Up – This is the first meeting of the season between these teams, with St. Anselm sweeping both contests in 2015-16. STAC hosted St. A’s at the Spartan Invitational the first weekend of last season and the Hawks prevailed with a convincing 82-59 win. Mike McCahey led all scorers with 32 points for the visitors, while Justin Reyes posted 14 for the Spartans. In the rematch at the NCAA Regional semi-final on March 13, STAC fell to a tough 77-73 defeat despite Reyes being unavailable due to suspension. Chaz Watler led St. Thomas Aquinas with 27 points, while McCahey recorded 29 for the Hawks.
Charging Spartans – STAC enters tonight’s game with a 6-game winning streak and 15-of-16 overall, after running off 10 victories to start the campaign. The Spartans were nationally ranked for much of the season, ascending as high as the #3 slot in the NABC Coaches’ Poll.
What's at Stake? - The winner advances to Sunday's East Regional Semi-final at 7:30 pm, taking on the winner of #1 LeMoyne vs. #8 Merrimack. Sunday’s winners play for the Regional title Tuesday night, with the eventual champ advancing to the Elite Eight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Not So “Neutral” – The Spartans were 4-1 on neutral hardwood a season ago, and are 2-0 this year, with both wins coming at the University of Bridgeport in last weekend’s East Coast Conference Tournament.
Grand-Slam Chaz – However long Chaz Watler’s final season extends, his impact on STAC’s men’s hoops program is indelible. During the Brooklyn native’s four years, the Spartans have amassed an 85-35 record to date (.708 win pct), and he has the distinction of appearing in the ECC Championship game in each of his four seasons. He was named Rookie of the Year in 2013-14, and has been an All-Conference selection each of his four years (2014, 3rd Team; 2015, 1st Team; 2016 1st Team; 2017, 2nd Team). Since coming to STAC with a winning pedigree, having played under Coach Jack Curran at Archbishop Molloy, Watler has amassed 1,799 career points entering this weekend’s play.
On the Cust of Greatness – STAC’s only other senior, four-year letterwinner Aaron Cust, can boast his own contributions to the Spartans’ success noted above, though his story has taken a different road. A key contributor off the bench, Aaron scored 832 points over his first 109 games, an average of 7.7 per contest. Including the game in which Jon Lawton was injured, January 25 at Roberts Wesleyan, Cust has soared for 205 points in 11 games, averaging 18.7 ppg. He entered the final game of the regular season at Mercy needing 21 to hit the seemingly-unlikely 1,000 point mark, and accomplished the feat in the first half of that game, scoring 24 before the break and totaling 30 overall.
3-for-1,000 – In the lengthy history of the STAC men’s basketball program, which includes its powerhouse tenure in the NAIA, only 30 players have hit the 1,000 point career plateau. Three of them are in uniform today, with Watler (1,799), Reyes (1,427), and Cust (1,037) each hitting the mark over the past two seasons.