The St. Thomas Aquinas women's basketball team beat LeMoyne College, 64-38 in today's non-conference game. Briana Sloper led all scorers with 19 points including 2-for-3 from behind the arc as the Lady Spartans took their fifth straight and seventh of eight overall. Sylvia Davis added 15 points, three assists and two steals.
With the victory, STAC improves to 7-3 on the season, while the setback was the visitors' eighth straight, dropping the Dolphins to 1-8 overall.
The Lady Spartans bolted from the gate, scoring the game's first nine points, but a stingy LeMoyne defense helped close the gap to 12-9. Sloper's hot hand from the perimeter started the ball rolling and her teammates began to find the range, reeling off a 20-4 run and extending the advantage to 35-15 by the end of the first half.
More of the same was in store after the break, as the hosts embarked on an identical 20-4 tear to start the second half, and the 55-19 lead with just over 11 minutes left was enough to allow the Lady Spartans to put it in cruise control. The decisive advantage allowed Coach Kim Lusk to spread out the playing time the rest of the way. Emma Cronk led the struggling Dolphin offense with a team-high seven points while Sadie Breen came off the bench to lead all rebounders with eight.
Defense was the name of the game for St. Thomas Aquinas, holding LeMoyne to just 14 field goals on 56 attempts (25%), while STAC hit 22-of-52 for 42%. The Lady Spartans hit an impressive 50% from three-point range (6-12), while the visitors struggled at 0-10. The Dolphins did hold the rebounding advantage by a 44-33 margin.
The Lady Spartans return to action this Monday, January 19 at Holy Family University for a big regional contest before closing out the year with a double-header at Pace University, with tip-off time at 1:30 before the men's teams take the hardwood. They will reengage in conference play on Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at Molloy College, travel to face C.W. Post on Saturday, January 7, and finally return to Aquinas Hall to face Dowling College in a twin-bill with the men's team on Wednesday, January 11.
The January 4 contests at Molloy will be available on video as the first of the East Coast Conference's Featured Game double-headers. Both games will have full production provided by Pack Network, and will be broadcast by STAC's own crew of play-by-play voice Steve Balsan and analyst John Dwinell. The broadcasts can be accessed via the video link on the appropriate schedule page at www.stacathletics.com as well as www.eccsports.org.