SPARKILL, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team saw its nine-game winning streak go by the wayside in disheartening fashion tonight, falling to Saint Thomas Aquinas College 86-62 at Aquinas Hall.  

In a game that featured the two hottest teams in the East Region of NCAA Division II, as well as the top two teams in the East Coast Conference standings, Daemen fell behind early and never recovered.  STAC entered the game ranked No. 6 in the latest D2SIDA East Region media poll, while Daemen made its season debut in the poll this week, coming in tied at No. 9.

With the loss, Daemen's first since faltering against this same STAC squad back on January 7, the Wildcats fall to 14-7 overall and 10-4 in ECC play.  With the win, the Spartans (19-4, 13-2 ECC) run their region-best winning streak to 13-straight as they certainly appear to be the frontrunners to capture the ECC regular season title with just over two weeks remaining before tournament time.

Sophomore guard James Mitchell (Washington, D.C.) and redshirt-sophomore forward Justin Reyes (Haverhill, Mass.) led a balanced effort from the Spartans tonight, each netting 15 points to share game-high honors.  Mitchell canned 6-of-10 shots from the field, including 3-of-6 from long range, while Reyes missed just two shots (6-for-8) and hauled in seven boards.  

Redshirt-sophomore forward Jules de Courtenay (Brisbane, Australia) and sophomore guard Shaquille McFarlan (Mesic, N.C.) also reached double figures for the Spartans with 14 and 10 points, respectively.  Both narrowly missed double-doubles as de Courtenay grabbed nine rebounds and McFarlan dished off nine assists.

The Spartans, who came in as the stingiest defensive team in the league, allowing just 69.8 points per game, stymied the high-powered Daemen offense which came in as the league's top scoring team (86.8 ppg).  Daemen shot just 35-percent from the field in the game (18-for-52), including just 21-percent in the opening half (6-for-28), and tied their season low for made field goals.  To make matters worse, the STAC full court press played a leading role in forcing Daemen into 18 turnovers which they turned into 26 points, 19 of which came in the first 20 minutes.

It was a forgettable night for Daemen's top two offensive weapons, senior guard/forward Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College) and junior forward Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) who entered the game combining for over 40 points per game this season.  Dyck, the league's leading scorer, was bottled up and limited to just 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting.  Mehmetaj was held scoreless in just 11 minutes of action.

Ryan Grandits (Kenmore, N.Y./Medaille College) came off the bench to score nine points, while fellow reserve forward Xavier Long (Brooklyn, N.Y./Williamsburg Prep) scored eight points and matched his career-high with nine rebounds.

STAC scored the first 12 points of the game and never looked back.  A Darius Garvin (Elmira, N.Y./Notre Dame) layup put Daemen on the board at the 17:11 mark, but back-to-back buckets by the ECC Preseason Player of the Year Chaz Watler (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and an alley-oop slam by Reyes pushed the Spartan lead to 18-2 less than four minutes into the game.  Daemen committed five turnovers during the initial STAC onslaught, and the Garvin layup was their only made field goal in their first 13 attempts, a span that lasted until the 11:14 mark when redshirt-freshman Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) scored on a putback.

STAC, which shot 55-percent in the opening stanza (21-for-38), saw its stunning lead in this battle of ECC behemoths swell to as many as 34 points when freshman forward Daniel Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) split a pair of freebies at the 2:59 mark to put the hosts ahead 48-14.  STAC eventually took a 51-22 lead into the halftime intermission, marking Daemen's lowest point total in any half this season.

Daemen never seriously threatened to get back into the game in the second half.  STAC's edge ballooned to as many as 36 points.  Daemen would only get as close as 23 points (84-61) after a three-pointer by Giambattista Davis (Buffalo, N.Y./Park) and a layup from Dmarco Barnes (Baldwin, N.Y./Post University) on back-to-back possessions inside of the two-minute mark.

It was a truly stunning turn of events for the Wildcats given how well they've played over the course of the last month, but the game played out in similar fashion to their last meeting with STAC.  The Spartans jumped out to an 18-5 edge, and led 46-27 at halftime en route to handing Daemen its first double-figure loss (85-66) at home since February 15, 2011.  STAC has now won four-straight in the all-time series which they lead 5-2.

Daemen will look to regroup quickly as they'll close the two-game road trip at Mercy College on Saturday (February 13).  The Wildcats scored a 94-81 win last month over the Mavericks to kick-start their now-defunct nine-game winning streak.  The Mavericks (11-9, 8-6 ECC) will enter Saturday's contest as winners of five-straight, including tonight's 88-83 dispatching of Roberts Wesleyan College, putting them above .500 in February for the first time since the 1992-93 season.  Tip-off Saturday is slated for 2:30 p.m. at Mercy Gymnasium.