The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team captured a 63-61 victory over Southern Connecticut State University at Aquinas Hall. Kate McCue broke a tie in the final minute with a driving bucket as her Lady Spartans improved to 6-6, snapping SCSU's six-game winning streak as the Owls stand at 7-5.

Both teams showed early effects of the holiday layoff, with the offenses struggling from the outset. Southern Connnecticut gained a 2-0 lead after more than a minute of play, and it was the only lead they were to hold for the game.

Samantha Burden's layup keyed a 7-0 run as STAC opened an 11-4 lead after nine minutes of play. Jackie Bethea's free throws with 9:20 left set the stage for a pair of trends that would be repeated often, with the first being the Lady Spartans extending a lead only to see the visitors close the gap. The second was that those points were Bethea's first of the contest, but she would be quite prolific from there.

STAC matched it's biggest lead at 17-10 on a McCue free throw, but the Owls would keep that gap from building and Mariah Hankton's basket-and-one with under a second to play sent the teams to halftime in a tight 33-30 contest.

KC Sokolski would give STAC a 43-35 advantage five minutes after the break, but Bethea would almost single-handedly keep her team in the game by recording the Owls' next eight points in drawing to within 45-44. Sabrina Eggink's jumper gave the Lady Spartans a 58-51 lead with eight minutes left, but a Bethea layup with under two minutes left would key a 9-2 SCSU run to tie the score for the first time since the early minutes at 60-60.

On the ensuing possession, Burden would miss on a jumper but Jenna Erickson would battle for the offensive board, setting the stage for McCue's pretty driving basket to put the hosts back ahead with a minute to play. After an Erickson steal, the freshman was fouled but converted one of her two foul shots, keeping the game within one possession at 63-60 and setting up a frantic finish.

SCSU's Taylor McLaughlin was fouled with :21 left and, after making the first shot, missed the second. The rebound went out off the Lady Spartans, however, giving the Owls another chance. With seconds ticking down, Sydni Lester missed a jumper but Bethea grabbed her 14th rebound of the contest. This time, her putback attempt to tie the score would just roll off to keep the score at 63-61. The game was still far from over, however.

McCue was fouled with 5.1 seconds left and missed her front end of the one-and-one, with SCSU calling timeout off the rebound with 4.1 seconds to play. After a timeout, Brennan ended the drama by stealing the inbound attempt to finally seal the victory.

Balance was the key for St. Thomas Aquinas, with six players recording eight or more points, led by Erickson and Brennan with 10 each. Bethea ended the game with 28 points, though her 12-of-17 from the floor included the big miss in the waning seconds.

The Lady Spartans return to action on Sunday, January 4, hosting Pace University in a 1:00 pm non-conference battle at Aquinas Hall. They then resume East Coast Conference play on Wednesday, January 7, when NYIT visits Sparkill with double-header action starting at 5:30 pm.