Box Score MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The St. Thomas men's basketball team has secured its highest ranking in school history on Tuesday and followed that up with another win as the first-place team in the Sun Conference.
 
Coming off a win over then-no. 2 Embry-Riddle on Saturday, St. Thomas jumped up 11 spots from no. 17 to no. 6 in the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball Top-25 Coaches Poll released Tuesday.  The no. 6 ranking marked the highest NAIA ranking in school history with the previous high being no. 10 in last season's final poll.
 
Undefeated in conference play, STU headed eight miles east to its neighboring conference rival Johnson & Wales for Tuesday's matchup.  While the Wildcats gave the Bobcats all they could handle for most of evening, STU came away with the victory. 
 
After building an eight-point lead at 40-32 on a Hincapie jump shot coming out of intermission, JWU outscored STU 13-6 to cut the lead to one and then took the lead at 55-54.  The Wildcats held the lead for several minutes and with just three minutes left led by five at 68-63.
 
The Bobcats responded by clamping down defensively and reeling off a 13-3 run to end the game.  The run started with two free throws by sophomore Lorel Beckford and a three-pointer by junior guard Floyd Battle that tied the game at 68.  After JWU went back ahead, another three-pointer by Battle gave the Bobcats the lead at 74-70 with 32 seconds left.
 
In all, Battle scored eight of STU's 13 points with the two three-pointers and two free throws.  Battle finished with 13 points on four-of-eight shooting from the field and three-for-four shooting from beyond the arc.  
 
Junior Demonte' Simpson scored a team-high 19 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year.  With the performance, he raised his scoring average of to a team-best 15.9 points-per-game and his rebounding average to 8.6 per game to lead the Bobcats.
 
St. Thomas returns to action to on Thursday with a road game at no. 10 Northwood (17-2, 4-2) in West Palm Beach.  The Bobcats return home for a game vs. 24th ranked Ave Maria (15-2, 3-2) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Fernandez Family Center.  The Ave Maria game will mark STU's third game vs. a ranked opponent in four games.

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