Box Score MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - Seniors Floyd Battle and Khaalis Coppock-Bey each scored 20 points as 11th ranked St. Thomas clinched the regular season Sun Conference title with a 88-82 win over no. 13 Northwood Wednesday night at the Fernandez Family Center.

With the win, the Bobcats (22-5, 15-2 Sun) extended their winning streak to seven games and swept both games the season against the Seahawks (12-6, 12-4 Sun).

St. Thomas has won 11 of its last 12 games with four of the wins coming against teams ranked at the time in the NAIA Division II Coaches Top-25 Poll. STU defeated then-no. 1 Embry-Riddle on Jan. 18 and followed that up with a win at then- no. 7 Northwood. On Feb. 12, the Bobcats won at home 60-58 at home vs. Embry-Riddle, ranked 19th at the time.

On Wednesday, Northwood ran out to a nine-point lead midway through the first half before a 20-10 run by the Bobcats knotted the score at 31-31. To close the first half, St. Thomas went on a 11-2 run to take a 47-38 lead into intermission.

The Seahawks battled back to tied the score at 54-54, then took the lead by as many as four points at 60-56 with 13:26 to play. After a Battle jumper put the Bobcats back ahead, Northwood's final lead of the game came after a Chris Lee lay up made the score 63-62 with 11:04 remaining.

Battle and Coppock-Bey hit back-to-back three pointers to stretch STU's lead to seven points with eight minutes to play. A jumper by NU's Jake Lockhart cut the lead to two points with 4:50 to play, but the Bobcats responded with five points by senior forward Davorn Bryant and a field goal by senior center Demonte' Simpson to give St. Thomas an eight-point lead with 1:10 to play. Made free throws by Coppock-Bey and Hincapie iced the game for the Bobcats.

The game was a foul-plagued affair with a total of 59 fouls committed by 20 different players between the two teams. Both teams converted 21 free throws on 35 attempts by the Bobcats and 33 attempts by the Seahawks. The teams shot similar numbers from the field as well with St. Thomas shooting 55% and Northwood shooting 59%. Rebounding totals were also nearly identical (NU 28, STU 27).

The difference came in three point shooting as the Bobcats went 9-of-16 from behind the arc led by three three-pointers made by both Battle and Coppock-Bey. Senior point guard Kevin Hincapie made both of his three-point attempts while sophomore guard James Vice hit a shot from downtown as well.

The regular season Sun Conference championship is the fourth in program history for St. Thomas (1994, '97, '12). In his two seasons at the helm of the Bobcats, first-time Head Coach Patrick Gayle has a 43-17 (.717) overall record and a 24-9 (.727) record in conference play. Gayle's 2012-13 team advanced to the second round of the NAIA Division II National Championships.

St. Thomas concludes its regular season on Saturday at Ave Maria, then will host an Opening Round game of The Sun Conference Championship on Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m. at the Fernandez Family Center.