Castleton, VT-Junior guard, Josh Howe paced five Spartans in double figures with 30 as the Castleton State College men's basketball team earned a 112-94 non-conference win over New England College. With the win Castleton improves to 3-4 overall, and will host Lyndon State College on January 15 at 1:00 pm to close out the first semester.

Both teams came out of the gate firing as the first four minutes were back-and-forth, but after Alden Gregory's lay-up with 15:57 remaining broke a 13-13 tie the Spartans would not trail again. Castleton stretched the lead to as many as 17 in the first half before the Pilgrims would crawl their way back to within six with just over two minutes remaining. Caslteton ended the half with a 54-44 lead in tow.

In the second half it was more of the same up and down action as NEC's Ryan Jaziri poured in 24 of his game-high 35 over the final 20 minutes to keep the Pilgrims in the hunt. Castleton would prove to have too much going down the stretch and cruised to the 18-point win.

Kingsley Onyechi notched a double-double with 24 points and 18 rebounds, but did most of his damage in the first-half scoring 18 over the opening 20 minutes. Patrick Holung and Jamie Davies also reached double-figures for 3-6 NEC scoring 11 and 10 respectively.

Castleton's Chris Young scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Alden Gregory and Richard Reilly each recorded double-doubles. Gregory's a conventional 15 points and 10 boards while Reilly ran the offense to the tune of 19 points and 12 assists. Kevin Cayea chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds for Castleton to round out the double-figure scorers.