SPARKILL, New York - The American International College women's basketball team controlled the middle of the game in a 73-58 win at Saint Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday, November 15 to open the 2025 season.

AIC is 1-0.

The teams went back and forth in the first 10 minutes, with four tie scores and six lead changes; though AIC scored first on a Chelsea Reeves basket, the Spartans responded with a nine-point run.

Ruzgar Christina Boyle helped cancel that out with a three and then an assist on an Eden Monka layup, and a subsequent seven-point run capped by a Peyton Grant triple put AIC ahead by four. The Spartans then rallied, and the last shot was a Bailey Chapman layup to give the home team a 17-16 lead through one.

The Spartan lead expanded to as much as five early in the second before AIC grabbed control. Keyvanna Bennett hit back-to-back shots, and Grant followed that with a pair of threes and then a swipe that ultimately led to a Boyle triple and a 35-25 AIC edge. That proved to be the score at the halftime break.

In the third, AIC continued to add. Chelsea Reeves and Boyle knocked down triples, and a later deep hit from Grant pushed AIC's advantage all the way to 20 at 51-31. Shortly after, Grant hit another, and Sarai Gurley followed shortly after with a free throw to give AIC its biggest lead of the game yet, 57-33. The Yellow Jackets took a 23-point edge into the final frame.

Reeves put the proverbial dagger in with an early pair of free throws and then a swipe-and-score to put AIC ahead by 27 less than a minute into the fourth. AIC cruised from there, and although the Spartans outscored AIC 12-0 over the final five minutes, it was simply too little, too late as the Yellow Jackets won the game 73-58.

Boyle and Reeves each led AIC with 16, while Grant scored 15 and Bennett 13. Tia Marie-Martinez did not score, but made her presence felt with five assists and six boards. A dozen of AIC's 22 field goals were from deep, with Grant and Boyle each hitting five.

AIC will head right back onto the court on Sunday, November 16 in Sparkill, New York as the Yellow Jackets face D'Youville University with a noon tipoff.