The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team rolled to a 124-76 East Coast Conference victory over LIU Post at Aquinas Hall. The Spartans have now won two straight and 3-of-4 overall, improving to 18-5 overall and 10-3 in conference, with LIU Post dropping to 0-20, 0-13. With five games remaining, STAC needs just three wins to clinch an ECC Tournament berth, remaining in third place in the conference standings, one full game behind Daemen and a half game behind Molloy.
In the final ever meeting between these programs in light of the disbanding of the LIU Post athletics program at the end of this season, the visitors came out battling as Kendell Oglivie netted six points and his team held an 11-8 lead after five minutes. That would not last, however, as Osbel Caraballo hit a three-point play in a 9-0 Spartans run, giving his team the lead to stay.
With Oglivie hitting another jumper, the score remained close at 26-24 with just under eight minutes left in the half, but Zach Rzwenicki hit from deep to cap a 17-3 burst and Marcus Stephens heated up to stake the hosts to a comfortable 61-38 advantage at the break. The outcome not being in doubt from the point, STAC went into its full rotation and the scoring load was split among no less than eight players in double-figures in scoring, with several reserves recording impressive performances.
Stevens, Kwabena Opoku, and David Aikens all came off the bench to score 16 points each, with Rzewnicki (14), Sekou Cisse (13), Grant Singleton (12), Kam Murrell (10) and Osbel Caraballo (10) all getting in on the action. Aikens also had seven assists to lead the team with Demetre Roberts and Singleton adding six each. Alonzo Ortiz-Traylor kept up his conference leading scoring pace, putting down a game-high 32 for the Pioneers.
The Spartans travel to the University of the District of Columbia for an ECC battle on Wednesday night, February 13, before playing three of their final four at home. They will have over a week off before conference showdowns with Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan on Friday, Febuary 22, and Sunday, Febuary 24 respectively, both at Aquinas Hall.