SPARKILL, N.Y. – The Roberts Wesleyan College men's basketball team trimmed a 16-point second-half deficit to four in the final minutes, but host Saint Thomas Aquinas College managed to hang on for a 94-87 victory in an East Coast Conference game on Sunday afternoon.
"I thought that we did a good job of fighting our way back into the game and giving ourselves a chance," Roberts head coach
Mark Saladzius said. "We just made a few too many errors and gave them too many live ball opportunities and they exploited them."
Sophomore
Ja'Kair Sanchez scored 17 of his 26 points in the second half to help rally the Redhawks (4-5, 2-2). Sanchez equaled his career-high set in the season opener against LeMoyne.
Senior forward
Fope Okuyiga added 20 points and nine rebounds and senior guard
Shane Fanning added 14 points for the Redhawks.
Junior guard
Amari Lee contributed 8 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists for Roberts.
STAC, which improved to 3-0 in the ECC, made 11 of its 27 3-point attempts and placed four players in double figures. Roberts made only 3 of 18 from 3-point range.
Roberts will take a break for the holidays before returning to action against the College of Staten Island in an ECC game at 7 p.m. on Jan 5 at the Voller Athletic Center.
"We are going to take a few days off and hopefully let some of our guys who are banged up little bit can get healthy," Saladzius said. "When we come back it is going to be all conference games, so I am just looking forward to see how much we can continue to progress over the second half of the season."
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