Men's Basketball Stalls at STAC, 73-52
Box Score
SPARKILL, N.Y. (Feb. 1, 2017) - On Wednesday, the LIU Post men's basketball team lost by a 73-52 final to St. Thomas Aquinas College in an East Coast Conference contest at Aquinas Hall.
Leading 34-33 nearly three minutes into the second half, the Spartans (18-4, 11-2 ECC) rolled off a 24-5 run in a nine-minute stretch to widen the gap to 58-38 with 8:51 remaining.
Red-shirt junior guard/forward Jeffrey Reyes (Haverhill, Mass.) and junior guard Shaquille McFarlan (Mesic, N.C.) paced the hosts with seven points apiece in the burst.
In the first half, the two teams exchanged two tied scores and two lead changes, until a 9-0 spurt by the visitors put LIU Post ahead 18-13 at the 7:04 mark. Senior guard
Jared Hall (South Orange, N.J.) sank a pair of jumpers in the run. Junior guard
Kyle McLeggan (Jersey City, N.J.) capped it off with a three-pointer.
However, STAC, which led by as many as six points (29-23) in the opening stanza, brought a 29-28 advantage into halftime. Red-shirt junior guard
Aary Bibens (Bennington, Vt.) buried a trey in the final minute to cut the deficit to a one-possession game at the break.
Senior forward
Greg Dotson (Abington, Pa.) led all players with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the loss. He also grabbed seven rebounds and rejected two blocks. Hall collected eight points, 13 rebounds and two steals. Bibens provided nine points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Junior forward
Hunter Powell (Tustin, Mich.) added six points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Head Coach
Erik Smiles and the Pioneers wrap up their three-game road trip Saturday (Feb. 4), when they visit ECC rival New York Institute of Technology for a 3 p.m. opening tip at Recreation Hall in Old Westbury.