Sloper's 16 Leads St. Thomas Aquinas Past Women's Basketball, 59-47
Box Score
SPARKILL, N.Y. (Jan. 5, 2011) – Briana Sloper scored a game-high 16 points to lead St. Thomas Aquinas past C.W. Post, 59-47, in an East Coast Conference women's basketball contest played Wednesday evening at Aquinas Hall.
St. Thomas Aquinas improves to 10-3 overall and 6-3 in conference play. C.W. Post dips to 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the ECC.
Sloper was 7-for-13 from field goal range and grabbed five rebounds off the glass for the Spartans.
The Pioneers jumped out to an early 10-4 lead before the Spartans squashed it with a 24-3 run to take a 24-13 lead with 3:22 to play in the first half. The Pioneers closed the gap with a 9-2 spurt but could not catch up before the end of the half. STAC held a 28-22 lead at the break.
In the second half, the Pioneers' offense improved, shooting .400 (10 of 25) from the floor, but the Spartans converted 13 of 26 and outscored their opponents, 31-25, in the half.
C.W. Post cut the lead to within eight on two occasions early in the second half courtesy of layups from sophomore forward Nicolette Marciniak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) at 17:23 and senior guard Janea Aiken (St. Albans, N.Y.) at 15:56.
Sloper, who had 12 points in the second half, scored a layup at 15:49 that put the Spartans' lead back into double figures.
The Pioneers threatened again with a short 6-2 spurt to cut the deficit to 42-33 after freshman guard Alexis Peters (Dorchester, Mass.) scored on a layup with 11:53 to play. STAC responded with seven unanswered points over the next two minutes of play.
The Spartans marked their highest lead of the game at 19 (59-40) with 4:06 to play. The Pioneers were able to put a halt on scoring against the Spartans for the remainder of the game but could not make up the difference before the game's clock ran out.
Marciniak led the Pioneers in scoring with 13 points with seven rebounds while junior guard Felicia Joyner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) added 11.
Leane Urbancik added 14 points for the Spartans.
C.W. Post returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Queens College at 1:30 p.m. in the Pratt Recreation Center.