Firebirds Fall to STAC in ECC Season Opener, 67-63

SPARKILL, NY – The University of the District of Columbia men's basketball team was defeated by St. Thomas Aquinas, 67-63 in both teams' East Coast Conference season opener Saturday afternoon at Aquinas Hall.

The Firebirds (1-3, 0-1 ECC) were led by junior forward Lenjo Kilo (Biology – Silver Spring, MD/Seton Hill), who registered team-highs of 16 points and 13 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Sophomore sharpshooter Omar Abbas (Electrical Engineering – Alexandria, Egypt/Egyptian American HS) also pitched in with a career-high 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from long-range.

STAC (3-1, 1-0 ECC), which won its third consecutive game under first-year head coach Tobin Anderson, was led by freshman guard Chaz Watler's 21 points and six assists. Fellow freshman guard Aaron Cust came off the bench to add 10 points and graduate guard Eli Maravich registered nine points and a game-high seven assists.

The Spartans jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the first five minutes of play, but the Firebirds outscored their hosts 18-6 over the next seven minutes as five different UDC players all connected on three-pointers during that span. Later, Abbas buried his second three-pointer of the game to make it 27-21 Firebirds with just under five minutes to play in the half; however, STAC closed the gap to 29-28 with a 7-2 run, ending with a Walter layup at the 1:39 mark. Quasim Jones (Business Management – Philadelphia, PA/Johnson CC), who would finish with 10 points and three assists, made a jumper at the buzzer to give UDC a 31-28 advantage at the break.

In the second half, it took the Spartans less than three minutes to even the score at 32 on a pair of free-throws by Watler. Then, by the 15:21 mark, STAC had its first lead of the closing period, 36-34 thanks to a Watler layup. With the score knotted at 37 just past the 14-minute mark, Alushula Odongo's layup started an 18-6 Spartan surge over the next five-and-a-half minutes which gave STAC a 55-43 lead approaching the eight-minute mark.

UDC still trailed 66-54 near the two-minute mark when a 7-0 Firebirds run, highlighted by Abbas' fourth three-pointer of the game in as many attempts, cut the deficit to five, 66-61 with 14 seconds remaining. A foul by junior guard Prince Ritson (Psychology – Greenbelt, MD/Bowie St.) sent Sam Wilson to the line for a one-and-one with 10 seconds on the clock. Wilson missed the first, but Jonathan McNair (four points, six rebounds) made a pivotal offensive rebound to keep possession for the Spartans. He was then fouled, and made the first of two free-throws to make it, 67-61. At the other end, Kilo followed Abbas' only miss of the day from three-point range with a layup just before the buzzer, making the final score 67-63.

STAC out-shot UDC 56-percent to 43-percent from the field and 38-percent (3-of-8) to 30-percent (7-of-23) from three-point range for the day. The Spartans also out-scored the Firebirds 38-26 in the paint and had a slight, 31-30 rebounding edge. UDC forced 17 STAC turnovers but only scored 14 points off of those turnovers while the Spartans turned 13 Firebird turnovers into 21 points.

Next up for the Firebirds is a rematch with non-region foe Alderson Broaddus on December 4^th at 7:30 p.m. UDC earned an exciting, 78-77 victory over the Battlers at home on November 20^th and will look to complete the season sweep when the two teams meet again in Philippi, WV.