The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team shook off a slow start to capture an 86-66 victory in a non-conference tilt at the College of Staten Island. The Spartans now stand at 7-1 overall on the season, with CSI falling to 2-4.

Coming off their first loss of the season on Monday night, the Spartans struggled out of the gate, being held off the board for over three minutes to start the game and trailing by a 9-2 margin on a Joseph Zieris three-pointer five minutes in. Marcus Stephens hit from deep to cap a 10-1 STAC answer, though the Dolphins remained tied at 17-17 midway through the half.

St. Thomas Aquinas kicked it into gear from there as Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton converted treys in a 10-0 run, opening a 27-17 lead that the visitors would not relinquish. The Spartan lead grew to as many as 16 points before settling for a 42-28 lead by halftime. Jamar Sudan started the second half with a layup and Singleton struck again from downtown and the lead was never fewer than 14 points thereafter.

Roberts, Sekou Cisse, and Osbel Caraballo paced the attack with 16 points each with Louis Griffith adding 14 to lead the balanced offense. Adeola Latunji was the standout performer for CSI, netting a game-high 22 points.

The Spartans now set their sights on the East Coast Conference portion of their schedule, which starts at Mercy College in a 7:00 pm start on Thursday, December 5. From there they return to Aquinas Hall for a weekend series against Roberts Wesleyan College (Friday, December 13) and Daemen College (Sunday, December 15).