MILTON, Mass. – The Castleton University men's basketball team dropped its season opener Thursday evening, falling by a final score of 79-65 to Curry College in non-conference action.

With the score tied at halftime, Curry (3-0) used a big second half to bury Castleton (0-1). The Colonels shot an impressive 52.4 percent (33-of-63) from the field, including a 37.5 percent (9-of-24) mark from long range. Castleton shot 39.4 percent (26-of-66) as a team, but struggled from distance, shooting just 22.2 percent (6-of-27) from three. The rebound battle was nearly even with Curry hauling in 37 to Castleton's 35.

Terrin Roy led Castleton's offense with 21 points, shooting 7-of-10 from inside the arc. His 21 points were the most in a season opener since Chad Copeland dropped 22 points in the 2016-17 opener. Demauriaye Smith added 12 points, six rebounds and three steals in his Castleton debut, while Remy Brown dropped 14 points off the bench. Brown added four rebounds, as did Amadou Diakite. Denis LeCours chipped in with six points and three rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.

Curry had three players in double digits, led by Jared Thorpe-Johnson's game-high 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting. Kieran Carroll added 24 points of his own, and collected 11 rebounds for a double-double. Daymeann Stewart had 10 points of his own in addition to seven assists and three steals on the night.

The Spartans got off to a quick start, running out to a 14-4 lead in the opening five minutes with seven of those points coming from Smith. After stretching the score to 16-8, a 7-0 run by the Colonels made it a one-point game, 16-15. Curry tied the game at 22-22 with just less than seven minutes to play in the half on a three by Villa. Castleton went ahead by three once more when Roy converted a three-point play the old-fashioned way, but Curry again tied the game at 25-25 on a three from the right wing by Thorpe-Johnson. The sides traded buckets over the final five minutes of play, heading into halftime all square at 32-32.

Curry came out of the break firing, scoring the first 10 points of the second half to go ahead 42-32 before Smith stopped the bleeding with a layup. The Colonels never relented, running the lead to 18 points late after back-to-back buckets by Thorpe-Johnson. Castleton got the final basket of the game on a layup by LeCours, but it was too little, too late as the Spartans fell 79-65.

Castleton returns to action Tuesday night at 7 p.m. against MCLA in the home opener at Glenbrook Gym.