The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team, ranked #6 in the nation, battled to a 72-70 victory over Molloy College in an East Coast Conference battle in Rockville Centre. STAC remains perfect on the season at 7-0 and 2-0 in conference play, with Molloy falling to a tough 3-5, 0-1. STAC has now won 25 consecutive regular season contests and 20 in a row overall against conference opponents.
Justin Reyes netted his 1,000th career point in the first half and totaled 19 for the Spartans while Jon Lawton battled foul trouble to lead the team with 21 points. Charlie Marquardt set the pace for the Lions with a game-high 25-point effort.
Reyes entered the afternoon needing just six points to hit the century mark, and the redshirt junior hit the mark midway through the first half, giving his Spartans a 22-13 lead. STAC would be up as many as 12 first half points but the hosts battled back to draw within 39-36 at halftime.
Mike Guzzardi's hoop with 17:32 left gave Molloy its first lead of the day at 43-42, setting the stage for several lead changes. With the Lions holding a 52-51 lead with 12 minutes left, James Mitchell tied the score from the line, and Lawton and Mitchell each hit big treys as part of a 12-2 run, giving STAC a 64-54 cushion with under six to play.
Though STAC retained a 70-61 gap with under four to play, Molloy would make a final push. Marquardt hit from deep before following with a put-back to cut the margin to 70-66 with under two minutes left.
Each team had chances in a sequence of turnovers and missed shots, culminating with Reyes missing a lay-up and being called for a rebounding foul with 17.7 seconds left. Mike Torre hit a pair to draw within two, and the Lions quickly fouled Reyes, who made one-of-two to make the score 71-68.
With no deep shooting options open, Nick Corbett attacked the basket and his lay-up made the score 71-70 with seven seconds left. Reyes was again fouled on the inbound and made the first of two with 6.0 left. He missed the second, however, with Marquardt grabbing the carom. With time dwindling, the quick outlet pass was picked off in the backcourt by Reyes, setting off the celebration at time elapsed.
Foul shooting kept Molloy in the contest, as the Lions hit an impressive 17-of-19 (89%), while the Spartans settled for 13-of-22 (59%). STAC dropped the rebounding battle by a 34-31 count, but forced 26 turnovers while yielding 19.
The Spartans will face another big ECC test on Wednesday, traveling to take on LIU Post in a 7:00 pm start. They will then host NYIT on December 10, and Bridgeport on Thursday, December 15.