Sparkill, N.Y. – James Mitchell scored 16 points to lead St. Thomas Aquinas College to a 72-67 victory over the 12th-ranked Le Moyne College men's basketball team in non-conference action on Tuesday evening at Aquinas Hall Gymnasium.

Senior forward Robert Jones III (Mansfield, Ohio/Mansfield/Northeastern College/Idaho State) led all scorers with 17 points, including 13 in the second half, while adding a team-high seven rebounds. Senior guard Anthony Richards (New Castle, Pa./New Castle/West Virginia Wesleyan) scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half.

St. Thomas Aquinas, which won the NCAA East Regional last year, placed four players in double digits, led by the 16 points from Mitchell, who also dished out six assists. Regional MVP Justin Reyes tallied 15 points (nine in the second half) and a game-high nine rebounds. Shaquille McFarlan registered 12 points and Kameron Murrell posted 10 points.
 
After the teams traded baskets over the opening three minutes of the game, which led to an 8-7 Le Moyne lead on a lay-up by Jones III, the Spartans scored seven of the next eight points, capped by a Murrell three-pointer, for a five-point edge with 16:12 left in the first half.
 
Following five points from each team over the next 6:14, the Dolphins registered a 9-2 run to take the lead back. Senior forward Isaiah Eisendorf (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook/Gannon) made a lay-up, Richards drained his third three-pointer of the half, Jones III finished off an alley-oop and then redshirt senior guard Tyquan Rolon (Syracuse, N.Y./Nottingham/Mohawk Valley C.C.) connected on a pair of foul shots.

St. Thomas Aquinas answered back with an 11-2 spree to take its largest lead of the half. Mitchell scored four of the points and Murrell tallied the final three with a conventional three-point play.

The Dolphins, who are ranked the highest in the program's history, closed out the stanza with seven of the last nine points to get within 34-32 at halftime. Senior guard Tyree Chambers (Bayreuth, Germany/Graf-Münster Gymnasium/Providence) started the streak with a free throw and capped it with a three-pointer with four seconds remaining, while Eisendorf made a jumper and senior guard Russell Sangster (Rockville, Md./Bullis School) converted a foul shot.
 
The Spartans used a 4-0 spurt and a 6-0 run around a 5-0 Le Moyne streak to extend their lead to 44-37 with 16:06 remaining. Jules de Courtenay recorded four of the 10 points in the span for St. Thomas Aquinas, while Jones III had all five of Le Moyne's points.

Le Moyne countered with 11 of the next 15 points to even the score at 48 apiece with 12:12 to play. Senior forward Daniel Kaigler (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Ludden/Gannon) scored the first six points, Rolon buried a three-pointer and then junior guard C.J. Asuncion-Byrd (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich/St. Thomas More/Gannon) tied the score with a lay-up off a feed from Kaigler.

St. Thomas Aquinas tallied the next five points and 14 of the game's next 17 to take its largest lead of the game with 5:37 remaining. Reyes and McFarlan each accounted for five points in the stretch.

After Reyes gave the Spartans a 66-57 lead with 4:22 left, the Dolphins scored 10 of the next 14 points to get within three with 32 seconds left. Rolon and Kaigler made lay-ups and Richards drained his fourth three-pointer to get Le Moyne within 68-64. After a Mitchell jumper with 43 seconds left, Jones III buried a three-pointer to get the Dolphins within 70-67.

After Mitchell missed the front end of a "1-and-1" and Le Moyne secured the rebound, the Dolphins got off a potentially game-tying three-point attempt from the left wing with seven seconds left, but it missed off the right side of the rim and McFarlan was able to pull down the rebound. McFarlan then finished off the game's scoring by making two free throws with four seconds left.
 
Le Moyne (8-2), which fell to the Spartans for the first time in three all-time meetings, returns to Northeast-10 Confernce action on Saturday at the University of New Haven at 3:30 p.m.