Bianca Kowgios exploded for a career-high 27 points to lead the St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team to a 77-65 victory over Molloy College. Ashley Motrechuk added a career high 16 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Spartans, who have now won two straight and four of five to improve to 11-10 overall, 6-5 in the East Coast Conference. Molloy saw its modest two-game win streak snapped as the Lions suffered their eighth loss in their last 11, falling to 9-12, 5-6.

Kowgios set the tone early, recording seven points in the first 6:24 and staking STAC to an 11-4 lead. The Lady Spartans extended their margin to as much as eight at 29-21 with just 3:09 remaining in the half, but Molloy closed the half with a 9-2 spurt to trim the deficit to just 31-30 at the break.

Sara Oliviera broke the seal on a lengthy three-point drought for St. Thomas Aquinas to extend the edge to four, but the fiesty Lions would record the next five points, as Amanda Bartlett's three-pointer gave them their first and only lead of the game at 35-34 with 17:45 left. It would be short-lived, however, as Oliviera stroked another trey just 10 seconds later to put the hosts back on top for good. The Lady Spartans, who have struggled to find scoring of late, erupted on a 30-8 tear over the ensuing 10 minutes to pull away as Molloy would not get the deficit to within single digits thereafter.

Shpresa Liharevic came off the bench to add 14 points and nine rebounds for STAC, while Bartlett paced the visitors with 15. Jessica DeNicola (14 points, eight rebounds) and Ikema Ross also added to the Lion attack. The teams were nearly even in shooting accuracy, with Molloy posting 38.5% (20-52) to St. Thomas Aquinas' 38.1% (24-63). The Lions enjoyed the rebounding edge, 41 to 35, but the decisive factors were turnovers and foul shooting. The Lady Spartans accounted for just 11 turnovers while their foes recorded 25, and STAC shot an impressive 26-30 from the charity stripe (87%) while Molloy was accurate in its own right at 80% (20-25).

The Lady Spartans head into the home stretch with a big road contest this Wednesday, February 8 at conference-leading Dowling College, with tipoff time set for 5:00 pm. This game will be aired along with the following men's contest as part of the conference's Featured Double-Header series and can be accessed at www.eccsports.org. They return to Aquinas Hall to host LIU-Post on Saturday, February 11, with double-header action starting at 1 pm.