The Castleton men's basketball team hung on for an 80-72 road win over Johnson State, in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) action Thursday evening. The Spartans improve to 7-5 overall and 5-1 in the conference while Johnson State falls to 2-9 overall and 0-7 in the NAC.

Sophomore Asim Khan went 6-16 bucketing a team-high 19 points, pulling down 10 rebounds and shot 5-6 from the charity stripe for the Badgers. Bryan Hickey poured in 18 points going 9-19 while Cory Chase chipped in 11 points and Ron Adrian tallied 15 in the Badgers' losing effort.

Carnelius Green led the Spartans with a double-double scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 off the glass. Chad Pulver and Logan White contributed 13 and 12 points respectively while Chad Copeland notched 11 for the Spartans.

In the opening stanza, Castleton worked to pull ahead 22-15 giving them their largest lead of the half. Khan and Adrian worked together to close the gap tying the game 24-24 with 10:36 left in the half.  The Spartans rallied to close the half 45-41. 

Castleton did not relinquish its half time lead until the 13:52 mark when Lester Alexander sank his second free throw tying the game at 56-56. Alexander kept the Badgers in the game a second time tying things up 75-75 with just 1:06 left to play. Despite the Badger's best efforts, Castleton walked away just two points ahead, winning the game 80-78. 

Johnson State shot 42% for the game to Castleton's 48%. The Spartans didn't care for the ball well, allowing 18 turnovers overall. The teams made for an exciting game giving the crowd 16 lead changes and nine ties before the half was through. 

Johnson will travel to Green Mountain for a NAC face-off at 3:00p this Saturday while Castleton hosts in-state foe, Lyndon State for a 3:00p tip.