The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team fell short by a 50-46 overtime count at Roberts Wesleyan College in an East Coast Conference contest. Jenna's Erickson's trey at the buzzer forced the overtime but could not prevent STAC from falling to 12-15 overall and 8-10 in the ECC, with RWC improving to 18-5, 13-4.
Combined with Molloy's 88-77 victory at NYIT, the gap in the conference playoff race tightened, with STAC maintaining a one-half game edge in the standings for the sixth and final tournament slot. The loss also snapped the Lady Spartans' win streak at three games.
Playing the back end of travel-partner back-to-backs, both teams struggled mightily from the field throughout the day. Samantha Burden's hoop gave STAC an 11-7 lead at the 14:41 mark, but her team went ice cold as the Redhawks rode a 15-2 spurt to a 22-13 lead with just under eight to play in the first half.
After trailing 26-20 at halftime, the Lady Spartans showed life after the break, scoring the half's first eight points in grabbing the lead. Kristin Olsen's trey gave the visitors a 28-26 edge at the 15:35 mark, but STAC would not register another field goal for the next 14 minutes. The defense kept the game alive but it was seemingly out of reach with Roberts Wesleyan enjoying a 40-33 lead with just 45 seconds to play.
Jenna Erickson's miss seemed to seal her team's fate, but Adiya Henderson came up with a steal and Alyson Brennan converted a hoop to draw STAC to 40-35 with 25 ticks remaining. Carniesha Henry missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep the Lady Spartans alive, and Henderson hit a layup to trim the gap to three with just 10 seconds left.
Lucy Covely would open the door by missing two foul shots with six seconds left and, after a time out, Erickson would emerge as the temporary hero, draining a three-pointer as regulation expired to tie the score.
Despite the unlikely comeback, it was not to be STAC's day, as RWC - which scored just 14 points the entire second half - put up 10 in the five-minute overtime session. Neceda James got a friendly bounce on a three-pointer to open the scoring, and the Lady Spartans would trail from that point.
Kate McCue led the Lady Spartans with 14 points while Covely equaled that total and grabbed 12 rebounds in pacing the Redhawks. Both teams struggled from the field with STAC shooting 25% (19-77) with the Redhawks going at a 30% clip (20-67).
The Lady Spartans hit the road against Mercy on Tuesday, February 24, before closing out the regular season at Aquinas Hall on Saturday, February 28 against the University of the District of Columbia. Tipoff time is 1:00 pm, and Senior Day activities will take place before the final regular season contest.