Firebirds Offense Sputters in 60-44 Loss to St. Thomas Aquinas

WASHINGTON, DC – The University of the District of Columbia continued to struggle offensively as the Firebirds were defeated by East Coast Conference foe St. Thomas Aquinas, 60-44 on Wednesday night at UDC Gym.

District of Columbia, which had nobody score in double-figures tonight and shot just 29-percent from the floor, has now lost its last three games to fall to 6-8 overall and 1-3 in league play. Meanwhile, this was STAC's third straight win as the Spartans improved to 7-7 overall and 3-1 in the conference.

Leading the offensive charge for the Firebirds was senior guard Janelle Junior (Administration of Justice – Riverside, CA/La Sierra HS) with eight points. Freshman forward Tatyana Calhoun (Environmental Science – Disputanta, VA/Sussex Central HS) was very active on the glass with a game-high 13 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.

District of Columbia's zone defense had no answer for Sara Oliveira, who burned the Firebirds with six three-point field goals en-route to a game-high 20 points. The Spartans, who were playing without their leading scorer Shpresa Liharevic, also got a double-double from starting forward Ashley Motrechuk (12 points, 10 rebounds).

The Firebirds looked to be in the driver's seat early on, grabbing an 11-4 lead nearly seven minutes in and going up by as many as 10 (21-11) after a three-pointer by freshman guard Tajruba Baldwin-Kollore (Public Health – Newport News, VA/Denbigh HS) at the 8:28 mark. However, with a 23-16 lead and six-and-a-half minutes to play in the first half, the Firebirds allowed the Spartans on a 13-4 charge to end the half and trailed 29-27 at intermission.

Following a Motrechuk jumper to open the half, Junior buried a three-pointer to pull the Firebirds within one, 31-30. However, that was as close as District of Columbia would get the rest of the way, as STAC outscored the Firebirds 20-4 over the next 10 minutes to take its largest lead of the night, 51-34. Oliveira scored 11 of her 20 points in that stretch and the Spartans would never look back. They went on to win by a final 60-44.