The St. Thomas Aquinas women's basketball team beat Bridgeport, 57-44 to clinch the regular season title and a #1 seed in the ECC tournament. Shpresa Liharevic had the hot hand for STAC with 26 points including 6-8 from behind the arc. Briana Sloper added 14 points and 14 rebounds as she became the STAC NCAA DII career points leader.
The Lady Spartans opened the game with a 14-0 run as Liharevic drained her first two 3-pointers in the run. Liharevic hit two more 3-pointers in the first half to give STAC a 26-9 lead with 4:28 remaining. Senior Theresa Dowling scored a layup in the closing seconds of the half to give STAC their largest lead of the game 35-9. Dowling is the Lady Spartans only senior and was honored in a pre-game ceremony as she played her final game at Aquinas Hall.
Briana Sloper scored four points for the Spartans to open the second half. The Purple Knights went on a 14-4 run before Liharevic struck again with back to back 3-pointers to give the Lady Spartans a 45-26 lead with 9:54 to go. Sloper converted on a pair of free throws giving STAC a 56-34 lead with 4:22 remaining. Sloper came into the game just six points shy of breaking the scoring record of 1,348 points held by Caitlin Hayes (2002-2005). The junior also broke the single season points record surpassing Josephine Alohan's (02-03) 464 points. Sloper currently has 466 points this season.
Dowling finished the night with 8 rebounds, 4 points and 1 assists. The senior has scored over 700 career points and is 2nd in 3-point field goals made. The Lady Spartans outrebounded the Purple Knights, 41-25. Bianca Kowgios added 6 rebounds to go with her 8 points.
The Lady Spartans move to 20-7 overall and 15-4 in the ECC. STAC will finish the regular season with a road game on Saturday at Queens College at 5:00 p.m. The Lady Spartans will receive a first round bye and advance to the semi-final round of the ECC playoffs held at Bridgeport on March 5th at 12:00 p.m. STAC will play the winner of the #4 C.W. Post vs #5 Queens College.