The St.Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team came up short in a 62-56 defeat in the East Coast Conference Tournament semi-finals at Roberts Wesleyan College. The #3 seeded Spartans close the condensed season at 5-9 overall, while #2 Roberts advances to Saturday's Championship Game at top-seeded defending champs Daemen.

With five freshmen playing their first collegiate playoff game, STAC showed signs of the jitters early as Chanel Brodeur-Muir's free throw was her team's only point for the first seven minutes, Madison McCormick hit back-to-back threes to give Roberts a 13-1 advantage. Brodeur-Muir added two more from the stripe and Victoria Kurisko scored the Spartans' first field goal with 2:21 left in the quarter as the deficit was trimmed to 16-9 through ten minutes.

Julia Reggio started the second quarter with a three-pointer as the Spartans extended their run to 15-4, drawing to within 17-16 midway through the second. The Redhawks answered on hoops by Danielle DiCintio and Amanda Barnell but the Spartans gained their first lead at 25-23 on Kaitlyn Watrobski trey with a minute left before a late Reggio layup gave the visitors a 27-26 edge at halftime.

As they did to open the game, RWC took early command in the third as Demitra Gkizani and Paige McCormack took charge in a 17-5 outburst over the first five minutes to give the hosts their largest lead at 43-32. STAC once again battled back as a late Kurisko hoop make the tally 45-41 entering the final frame.

Both teams went all out in a fast-paced fourth quarter with Reggio closing the margin to 51-50 with six minutes left, and STAC trailed by a 55-53 count when Madison McCormick struck from deep to open a 58-53 gap with 4:13 on the clock. The defenses dug in from there with neither team scoring until a pair of DiCintio free throws with 30 seconds left put the contest away.

Kurisko poured in a game-high 19 points for St. Thomas Aquinas an Watrobski chipped in 13, while Wilson and Madison McCormick led four Redhawks in double-figures with 15 each.