RUTLAND, Vt. – Antonio Wilburn's (Denver, N.C.) steal and pair of free throws with under 30 seconds left gave College of St. Joseph (Vt.) its first lead since early in the first-half, and the Saints held on to defeat Castleton State College 74-72 in non-conference men's basketball action Friday evening.

Clinging to a 70-69 lead, Mark Comstock (Rutland, Vt.) beat his defender off the dribble, but Wilburn closed down the lane and came up with the steal leading to a breakaway lay-up attempt in which he was fouled. Wilburn was good on both attempts, to give the Saints the 71-70 lead with 29 seconds remaining. St. Joseph (Vt.) earned a stop on the next trip, and KJ Jackson (Aurora, Ill.) snared the rebound and was fouled. Jackson made the first, and missed the second, but Rahiem Smalls (Brooklyn, N.Y.) grabbed a huge offensive rebound and made both free throws to push the lead to 74-70 with 11 seconds left. A Comstock stick back made it 74-72, but the Spartans were unable to foul as time expired, giving St. Joseph the win.

St. Joseph (4-8) freshman Brendan Rios (Easthampton, Mass.) led all scorers with 26 points off the bench, including a 7-for-15 performance from beyond the three-point stripe. Smalls added 20 and 10 rebounds, while Jackson finished with 13.

Comstock led Castleton (4-5) with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Jared Paul (Tampa, Fla.) tossed in 16 points, including 8-of-8 from the free throw line, and Mike Knight (Spring Valley, N.Y.) finished with 13.

Castleton led 36-25 at halftime, and saw its lead balloon to as many as 16 early in the second half before CSJ started to make its run. Trailing 41-25, Rios keyed a 17-6 Saint run, canning 3-of-4 from distance. Another Rios three-pointer with 10:20 remaining in the contest pulled the Saints to within one at 50-49, but lay-ups from Comstock and Knight as well as a three-pointer from David Cochrane (Virginia Beach, Va.) pushed the Spartan lead back to eight.

 The Spartans return to action on January 11 when they travel to Southern Vermont for a 7:00 non-conference match-up.