BUFFALO – The D'Youville University women's basketball team was defeated by St. Thomas Aquinas College on Sunday by a score of 64-49.
 
Anna Jankovic (Averill Park, N.Y.) led the Saints in scoring with 13 points and recorded four steals. Stella Mollica (Shillington, Pa.) dished out a season-high 10 assists and Jaelyn Vleer-Elliott (Waterville, N.Y.) grabbed a team-high seven rebounds along with two blocks.
 
Jankovic got the Saints on the board with a close-range jumper to start the first quarter. Morgan Giancaterino (Orchard Park, N.Y.) knocked down a three-pointer to make it 5-5 at the 6:36 mark. The score stayed deadlocked at 5-5 for the next four minutes, until Jankovic put an end to the drought with a free throw. A pair of layups from Vleer-Elliott made it a 10-7 DYU lead with 1:15 left in the quarter. The Spartans ended the quarter on a 5-0 run to take a 12-10 lead.
 
STAC scored eight straight points to start the second quarter before a layup from Jankovic put a stop to the run. Brianne Moxley (Penfield, N.Y.) dropped in a three-pointer to cut the Spartans' lead to 23-17 with 5:57 remaining. Sofie Fuglsang (Oberanven, Luxembourg) poured in a three of her own to keep the deficit at six with four minutes until halftime. Isabella Kostyal-Larrier (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) made a layup to make it 29-22 Spartans with 49 seconds left. STAC scored four straight to close out the half with a 33-22 advantage.
 
After the Spartans went up by 15 to start third quarter, Jankovic made three straight layups to make it 39-28. An 8-0 run from STAC extended their lead out to 19 with 4:53 remaining. The Saints responded with nine straight points thanks to a layup from Jankovic, a pair of midrange jumpers from Carla Torrubia Cano (Melilla, Spain), and a layup from Mercy Lasu (Innisfil, Canada) to cut the Spartans lead to 12 heading to the fourth quarter.
 
A three-pointer from Moxley kept STAC's lead at 12 in the early going of the fourth quarter. A three-pointer from Mollica made it 57-43 with 5:20 left to play. The Saints scored six straight points to finish out the game thanks to layups from Vleer-Elliott, Kostyal-Larrier, and Giancaterino.
 
The Saints will be back in action next Sunday, when they travel across town to face Daemen University at 1:00 p.m.