CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton State College men's basketball team raced out to a 23-point lead at halftime, and survived a second half surge from Lyndon State College in an 85-62 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) win Saturday afternoon at Glenbrook Gymnasium.

With the win Castleton improves to 10-7 overall and 5-1 in conference play. Lyndon falls to 5-12, 4-2.

Castleton placed five players in double figures, including three players off the bench, led by Jared Paul's (Tampa, Fla.) 16. Paul also grabbed eight rebounds and was 5-for-8 from the field, including a 4-for-6 performance from beyond the three-point arc. David Cochrane (Virgina Beach, Va.) and Kevin Eisenberg (Moultonborough, N.H.) added a dozen points apiece, as Castleton's bench outscored the Hornet bench 47-16. Cochrane was 5-for-6 from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers, while Eisenberg added a trio from long distance. Mark Comstock (Rutland, Vt.) and Kyle Bennett (Bennington, Vt.) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 and 10 respectively.

Phil Warrick (Springfield, Mass.) led a trio of scorers in double figures for Lyndon with 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting. Jason Gray (East Thetford, Vt.) followed with 13, while O'Bee Byrd (Waterbury, Conn.) chipped in 11 points and nine boards.

Castleton grabbed the lead just over one minute into the contest, and never relinquished it en route to the win. The Spartans led 19-13 with 10:18 remaining in the opening stanza and reeled off the next 11-straight points, fueled by a pair of three pointers from Eisenberg and a baseline jumper from Cochrane, to take a 30-13 lead. Castleton slowly built the margin to 46-23 at halftime, shooting an impressive 65.5 percent (19-29) from the field and 52.8 percent (7-13) from three-point range.

Trailing 50-29 three minutes into the second half, Lyndon ran off 12-straight points to slice the deficit to nine. A Logan Calkins (Danville, Vt.) three-pointer started the run, and Warrick tossed in seven points to key the surge. Lyndon got as close as seven with just under 14 minutes remaining at 52-45, but Castleton answered with a 6-0 spurt to push the lead back to double-digits where it stayed for the remainder of the contest.

Castleton returns to action Monday when the Spartans play host to Johnson State in NAC action at 7:30 p.m. Lyndon travels to Green Mountain Tuesday for an 8 p.m. NAC tilt.