The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team fell 53-43 to visiting St. Michael's College yesterday.  Junior Colleen Vogel led all scorers with nineteen points including 6-7 from the free throw line.  Junior forward Whitney Dugan continued her strong play with ten points and nine rebounds.  The Lady Spartans received a career high ten rebounds from Kaitlin Page while freshman Kim Vareles dished out a game high five assists.

Vogel and Dugan lead all scorers in the first half with eight points each as the Lady Spartans went into the locker room down four 26-22.  St. Michael's College opened the second half with a three pointer by Marilyn Ferreira to put them up seven.  Vogel answered with a lay-up at 17:10 but the Lady Spartans went scoreless for the next four minutes until Dugan knocked down a pair of free throws.  In the meantime the Purple Knights had built themselves a thirteen point lead.  The scoring drought continued for STAC as they found themselves down 31-48 with just under six minutes to play.  STAC fought hard to climb back in the game pulling off a 13-1 run pulling them within six (43-49) with 2:34 to play.  The Lady Spartans went 0-4 in the final possessions of the game as St. Michael's hit it's last four free throws to end the game.   

The Purple Knights were led by Megan Otey (14 points, 8 rebounds), Alexis Keller (10 points, 7 rebounds) and Ferreira (10 points, 4 assists and 4 steals).

The Lady Spartans will take the court again as they host conference opponent Dowling College on Wednesday at 5:30 PM.  The Lady Spartans will be followed by the men who will tip-off against Dowling at 7:30 PM.  Wednesday's game will be the final home game of the semester.