The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team captured a 63-47 victory over the University of the District of Columbia in an East Coast Conference battle at Aquinas Hall. The victory was STAC's third straight as they improve to 16-7 overall and 10-4 in conference play, good enough for third place in the ECC standings. UDC fell to 2-21, 1-12 with the loss.

Kellyann Averill's jumper gave the Lady Spartans an early 7-4 lead but, despite playing with just six uniformed players, UDC briefly grabbed the lead and trailed by just a 16-13 margin in the last minute of the first quarter. Alex Bertolino changed that with her second consecutive three pointer, giving her squad a six point lead that the break.

That touched off a decisive 18-0 STAC run, as the hosts kept the Firebirds off the board for the first seven minutes of the second quarter, opening a 34-13 gap. The Lady Spartans' lead was 20 at halftime, and while the spirited visitors chipped away at the deficit, they never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

Bertolino provided the spark for the STAC offense with a game-high 15 points, with Kaitlyn McCue recording 13 and Jenna Erickson adding 10. Bianca White was the scoring leader for UDC with 13 points, as the Lady Spartans remained just 1/2 game behind Molloy College in the standings.

The Lady Spartans play just one of their remaining five regular season games at home, traveling to face the University of New Haven for a non-conference battle on Tuesday, February 7 and then to Queens for a big conference test on Saturday, February 11. Their final regular-season home contest is on Wednesday, February 15, when Daemen visits Aquinas Hall for a 5:00 pm start.