The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team fell to a 64-45 defeat at Pace University on Saturday. Kaitlyn McCue led three Lady Spartans in double-figures with 14 points as her team fell to 5-2 with the non-conference loss, while Pace earned its first victory of the season to improve to 1-9. The win was also the 400th career triumph for veteran Setters Coach Carrie Seymour.

Sabrina Eggink hit a pair of early buckets and Colleen Ames nailed a three pointer to stake St. Thomas Aquinas to a 9-7 lead after six minutes of play. STAC's offense would then run cold, however, with the hosts taking off on a 13-1 run, holding the Lady Spartans without a field goal in nearly nine minutes while grabbing a 20-10 lead.

Pace maintained a 29-20 gap at the halftime break, extending that margin to 43-28 in the opening minutes of the second half. McCue convered a three-point-play to get STAC started, with the Lady Spartans utilizing a 12-2 spurt to trim the deficit to 45-40 with just under eight minutes left.

After the Setters upped their lead to 50-42, McCue hit another "and-one" to once again close the gap to five, but that would prove to be STAC's last gasp. With the game in the balance, the Lady Spartans' offense would run cold, failing to score over the game's final 6:10 as Pace stormed off on a 17-0 run to close out the win.

Eggink added 13 points and Kristin Olsen added 12 in the loss, while Pace's Shanice Maynard led four Setters in double-figures with 16 points. Margo Hackett (13), Yuni Sher (10) and Kiersten Dodge (10) picked up the balanced attack for Pace.

The Lady Spartans return to action the Wednesday, December 18, when they resume their East Coast Conference schedule with a trip to the University of Bridgeport, with tipoff time scheduled for 5:00 pm, before the men's game at 7:00. They will then return to Aquinas Hall on Saturday, December 21, in an ECC twin-bill against Dowling College. Double-header action starts at 1:00 pm with women's action, followed by the men's tilt at 3:00.