Firebirds Fall to Spartans, 76-71 in ECC Road Clash

SPARKILL, NY – The University of the District of Columbia men's basketball team was defeated, 76-71 by St. Thomas Aquinas College in East Coast Conference play Thursday night at Aquinas Hall.

The Firebirds' overall record dipped below .500 once again at 7-8 and they fell to 5-2 in league play with tonight's loss, while the Spartans won their 6^th straight game and improved to 12-4 overall and 6-2 in league play.

Junior transfer guard Kasim Chandler gave a terrific performance for the Firebirds, leading all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-7 FG shooting and 8-of-9 FT shooting. He also added four assists. Senior guard Erin Senegal and junior transfer reserve forward Joseph Nickerson added 15 and 12 points, respectively, and junior transfer guard Virgil Fleming dished out a game-high seven assists.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the reigning ECC Regular Season champions, put four scorers in double-figures. Reigning ECC Player of the Week, Justin Reyes, led the Spartans with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Shaquille McFarlan posted a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. Also, Chaz Watler and Aaron Cust each added 13 points, with Watler also dishing a team-high five assists.

Both teams shot well from the field, but it was STAC with a 53-percent to 47-percent FG shooting edge which included a 46-percent to 36-percent disparity from three-point range. The Spartans also won the rebounding battle, 39-29, and had eight more points in the paint (42-34).

Watler knocked down two three-pointers within the first three-and-a-half minutes of action to help STAC storm out to a 10-2 early lead. Reserve guard Martin Campbell's three-pointer at the 13:33 mark capped a 7-2 Firebird response to cut the deficit to 12-9, and UDC pulled within three twice more at 12:25 and at 11:49. Up 16-13, Cust began and finished a 13-3 burst by STAC, completing the run with a conventional three-point play at the 8:46 mark to give the Spartans their first double-digit lead of the night.

The Firebirds answered, however, as Senegal buried a three-pointer at 8:21 and ignited a 16-5 surge by UDC. The run culminated in a Nickerson jump shot to give the visitors their first lead of the night, 32-31 with 3:44 remaining in the opening half. The lead changed hands three more times, but it was STAC that took a 37-34 lead into intermission.

The two ECC foes continued to trade blows as the action resumed in the 2^nd half. UDC kept it a one-possession game courtesy of a Jayone Troutman jump shot at 16:35 to make the score, 46-43, but four straight points by McFarlan and later a jumper by Cust extended the Spartans' lead to eight, 51-43 with about seven minutes gone by in the closing half.

A dunk by Troutman just past the 13-minute mark breathed new life into the Firebirds as they embarked on a 15-6 run that included a three-pointer each by Campbell and Senegal, and culminated in an emphatic dunk by Nickerson to give the Firebirds their first lead of the 2^nd half, 58-57 with 7:41 remaining. Over the next five-and-a-half minutes, the lead changed hands seven times and the score was tied three times. The game's final tie, at 70, occurred when STAC's James Mitchell answered a Senegal three-pointer with one of his own at the 2:09 mark. Later, with a little over a minute to play, Reyes put the Spartans ahead for good with a conventional three-point play. Chandler missed the 2^nd of two free-throws on the ensuing UDC possession, and so the Firebirds still trailed 73-71 at the one-minute mark.

With 34 seconds remaining, Jonathan Lawton headed to the line to shoot two for STAC, and he missed both, leaving the Firebirds with an opportunity to tie or win the game. A three-point attempt by Campbell with 19 seconds remaining rimmed out though, and STAC went on to seal the win with 3-of-4 FT shooting in the final 13 seconds.

UDC is back in action on Saturday as the Firebirds host ECC foe Mercy College at 2 p.m.