The Aquinas men's basketball team protected home court in the regular season finale against Rochester on Wednesday evening (Feb. 16) in Sturrus Center. The Saints took a 23-point lead into the locker room at halftime and were able to hold off the Warriors in the second for the 81-71 victory.
AQ has climbed into sixth place of the WHAC with a 10-10 conference record and a 16-13 overall record. There are still five games remaining among WHAC teams on Saturday (Feb. 19) that could implicate the WHAC Tournament that is scheduled for Feb. 23-28.
The Saints looked dominant throughout the first 20 minutes of the ball game. The game began with a 16-3 run by AQ as the Warriors were ice cold for the first 5:49 of the half. This trend continued as halfway through the period, Aquinas held a 19-point lead with the score sitting at 25-6. The lead grew to as much as 27 before the Warriors hit the last two shots of the half to cut it to 23. The Saints defense came up big by limiting Rochester to 9-30 shooting including 0-12 from behind the arc. At the same time, AQ shot at a 51.7% clip including going 6-12 from downtown and 8-9 from the free throw line. Gabe Overway had 12 points on 4-5 shooting and four free throws, while Menalito McGee also went 4-5 for 11 points with three baskets coming from three-point land.
Rochester started to get its footing offensively in the second half by chipping away at the big AQ lead. The Warriors cut the lead to 15 points halfway through the period and was making it difficult for the Saints to score on the other end. Eventually, RU managed to get the game back within single digits with 1:44 remaining in the game. The Saints made nine of their 12 free throw attempts down the stretch to secure the win. The Warriors did manage to outscore AQ 50-37 in the second half with all eight of their three-pointers coming in the final 20 minutes. Justin Lary kept the offense afloat just enough to hold on to the victory as he scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
Aquinas had a 45.2% shooting percentage on 28-62 from the field including 7-18 from three and 18-23 from the free throw line. Rochester finished with a 45.5% field goal percentage, while also making eight treys and going 13-28 from the charity stripe.
In just 20 minutes of action due to foul trouble, Overway still led Aquinas with 18 points on 7-9 shooting and 4-4 from the line. McGee finished with a career-high 16 points with the help of going 4-7 from behind the arc, while also having four assists and four steals. Sammie Ryans collected his first double-double in his three years at AQ by scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 rebounds to go along with his three assists.
Trevor Ballard ended up with 11 points off the bench and also grabbed eight boards. Lary was the fifth Saint in double figures with 10 points, while also collecting six rebounds. Jesse Hillis was the main distributor of the night after dishing out seven assists. Hillis (7), Jaylen Rutherford (4), and Tommy Gregwer (3) rounded out the scoring for the Saints.
Aquinas finished with more rebounds (41-35), assists (16-14), and steals (9-6), while Rochester blocked more shots (2-0).
The Saints will now wait and see how the final five WHAC games play out on Saturday (Feb. 19) to determine seeding for the WHAC tournament.
