Men’s Hoop: Castleton Rolls Over Johnson, 80-56

Courtesy Castleton Sports Information

CASTLETON – The Spartans held an opponent under 60 points for the first time this year and limited Johnson St. to just 26 second-half points on the way to a 80-56 win on Thursday evening in Glenbrook Gym.

Castleton harassed the Badgers to just 34.4 percent shooting while connecting on a season-best 53.3 percent of its shots to improve to 4-5 and 3-1 in conference action. Johnson St. fell to 0-8 with the loss and 0-2 in the North Atlantic Conference. The Spartans outrebounded the Badgers 39-27 in the contest and made 13 of 28 three-point attempts.

Senior Rob Coloutti scored 18 points on six triples with three rebounds and three assists. He also became just the fourth Spartan to surpass 200 career threes, and has 205 overall. Tondi Mushandu added ten points, eight rebounds and three assists while Casey McGraw contributed 12 points, eight boards, two assists and one block.

For the Badgers, Benjamin Holl provided a game-high 20 points with six shots from downtown. Rahim Bunch added five points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals while Rasul Jackson chipped in ten points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists.

The teams started a combined 9-for-9 from beyond the arc to open the game, with Johnson St. holding a slight 15-14 advantage following a Parrish three at 16:24. Edmund Fitzgerald then gave Castleton its first lead and Coloutti followed up with a three 30 seconds later after a Badger bucket for a 19-18 lead.

Mushandu scored and Khan countered with a layup to make it 21-20. However, the Badgers didn’t score for nearly eight minutes as the Spartans pushed their lead to 33-20 on a layup by Tyler Arsenault. The Badgers closed it within nine twice, but a Mushandu dunk gave Castleton a 42-30 lead at the break.

The Spartans didn’t let their lead slip below nine during the first seven minutes of the second, and an 11-0 run, highlighted by two Joshua Horton triples, stretched the lead to 60-40 with 9:03 left. Both teams subbed liberally over the final nine minutes, and back-to-back threes from Luke Czaplewski and Robbie Colarusso in the final 2:34 provided the 24-point margin of victory.

Castleton concludes its semester by traveling to face Lyndon on Saturday at 3 pm.

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