The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team came up short at LIU-Post, 58-51. Briana Sloper led the Lady Spartan offense with a game-high 16 points, but it wasn't enough to prevent her team from falling to its fourth straight defeat.
Shpresa Liharevic chipped in with 11 points for STAC, while Felicia Joyner led three Lady Pioneers in double-figures with 14. Catherine Lutz added 12 points and Nicolette Marciniak contributed 11 to go with a game-high 14 rebounds for Post. With the victory, Post improved to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in the East Coast Conference, while the Lady Spartans fell to 7-7, 2-2.
Both teams struggled mightily from the floor from the outset, with Sloper's three-pointer accounting for all of the scoring over nearly the first five minutes of play. Post finally broke the seal and rallied to a 14-4 run to grab a 14-11 lead. A Sylvia Davis three keyed a 10-1 run to give STAC a 25-19 lead, their biggest of half. The Lady Spartans zone defense allowed just one Post field goal over the final 6:30, taking a 27-23 lead into locker room.
After St. Thomas Aquinas increased its margin to six, Post turned up the defensive pressure of its own, reeling off an 11-2 run on the strength of a pair of Lutz treys to take a 37-34 lead. A Liharevic basket-plus-one keyed a 7-0 burst by STAC for 41-37 lead. Again, the hosts would rally with 14 unanswered points over a six-minute span to reclaim the decisive edge at 51-41 and cruise to the conference triumph.
Post carried the advantage from the field, shooting 35% overall (19-55) while the Lady Spartans' shooting struggles continued, converting at just 30% (18-60). The Lady Pioneers won the battle of the boards, outrebounding STAC by a 45-39 margin.
The Lady Spartans return to Aquinas Hall to face Dowling College in a twin-bill with the men's team on Wednesday, January 11, with tip-off time set for 5:30 pm, and enjoy a week off before hosting NYIT on Wednesday, January 11 in a 5:30 pm start. You can catch all the action on video and follow along with our new Live Stats feature by clicking the appropriate links on the team schedule.