MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – St. Thomas (7-3, 4-1 TSC) won an overtime thriller 96-90 over crosstown rival Johnson & Wales (2-9, 2-4 TSC) on Saturday evening at the Fernandez Family Center.

Tim Sada led STU with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc.  Raheem Bowman recorded a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds.  Philip Saunders hit three three-pointers en route to 15 points.  Khalil Williams scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, while Antoine Joe scored 12 points and pulled down seven boards.

St. Thomas was electric shooting the ball in the first half with a 70% shooting percentage in the opening stanza.  Sada opened the game 5-of-5 shooting 2-of-2 from three-point territory to lead with the Bobcats with 13 points at intermission.  Williams was also very effective in the paint, shooting 4-of-4 in the opening half.  The Bobcats built its largest lead of 14 points midway through the first half, then led 49-46 at halftime.

JWU fought its way back in the contest in the second half and eventualy took the lead 72-68 with 5:53 to play in regulation.  The Bobcats trailed by as many as seven points in the second half, but battled back to an 80-80 tie on a layup by Bowman.  The Wildcats went back up by two points on a pair of free throws before Sada hit a clutch layup on a beautiful assist by Fotios Malelis with 1:06 to play to tie the game 82-82.

The game went into overtime tied 83-83 as each team was only able to manage a single free throw over the final 66 seconds of regulation.

The Bobcats controlled the action throughout the overtime period outscoring JWU 13-7.  The Bobcats earned several trips to the free throw line, capped off by two made free throws by Sada with 20 seconds left that put the game out of reach. 

For the game, the Bobcats outshot the Wildcats 59% to 48%.  JWU was very aggressive from beyond the arc with 38 of its 64 field goal attempts coming from beyond the arc.

St. Thomas returns to action on Tuesday, Dec. 19 vs. Mitchell College (Conn.) as part of the STU Classic.  Game time is 7 p.m. at the Fernandez Family Center.