CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton Spartans edged the Johnson State men's basketball team 87-69 Thursday night. The Badgers drop to 6-9 on the year and 4-5 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play while the host team, ranked #3 in the conference, improves to 8-7 overall and 6-2 in the NAC.
Junior forward Bryan Hickey (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) was the Badgers top scorer with 15 points on 7-for-15 shooting to go along with a solid eight rebounds and four blocks. Sophomore Ron Adrian (Schenectady, N.Y. / Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) also reached double figures with 11 points while teammate Cody Camisa (Colchester, Vt. / Colchester) chipped in with nine points and nine boards.
Freshman Rob Coloutti (Fair Haven, Vt.) led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc and was joined by three others in double figures. Logan White (Hartford, Vt.) chipped in with 13 points and four assists while Jeremy Odena (Boston, Mass.) and Mark Comstock (Rutland, Vt.) each had ten.
Castleton jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the first 2:20 of the contest. Back-to-back triples by Johnson's Andy Bousono (Philadelphia, Penn./Nueva Esperanza) and Camisa put the Badgers in front, 10-9, but Castleton's Comstock answered at 16:22 with a three for the 12-10 lead. Bousono hit another shot from downtown, but a 7-0 Spartan run put the hosts in front 19-13 with 13:38 left. Later in the half a layup from Castleton extended the lead to 148-30, with 28 seconds left, until Johnson's Asim Khan (Torrance, Calif./Torrance) countered with a triple for a 48-33 Castleton lead at the break.
The Spartans opened the second half with a fast seven point run adding to the host's lead 55-33. A jumper from Hickey ended the run, but Castleton the extended its lead to 28 over the next four minutes. A 6-2 run pushed the Spartan advantage to 75-45. Castleton's lead hit 30 once more before both teams subbed liberally over the final ten minutes and the Spartans finished with an 18-point win.
Johnson State College will host fellow NAC competitor Green Mountain College Saturday at 1:00pm while Castleton will travel to Lyndon St. to take on the Hornets.