CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's basketball team took Keene State to the wire Wednesday night, but fell at the buzzer as the Owls walked out of Glenbrook Gymnasium on top by a final score of 58-56 in Little East Conference action.

Castleton (1-5, 0-1 LEC) gave Keene State (2-5, 1-0 LEC) all it could handle, but James Anozie banked in a layup at the buzzer to break a 56-56 deadlock and give the Owls the win. In total, the game saw eight ties and nine lead changes with neither side leading by more than seven points at any point in the contest.

Castleton shot 36.0 percent (18-of-50) in the contest, but held Keene to 38.6 percent (22-of-57) on the night. The Owls were deadly from three-point range, making 12-of-26 (46.2 percent) while Castleton made just 6-of-20 (30.0 percent). Rebounds were nearly even, with Keene State holding a 37-34 edge. Castleton outscored the Owls in the paint, 24-18, but Keene State had 10 second-chance points to Castleton's five.

Remy Brown led the offensive charge for Castleton with 19 points—15 of which came in the game's first nine minutes. Brown was 6-of-7 shooting and made 3-of-4 from three and 4-of-5 at the line. He added five rebounds. Demauriaye Smith dropped 11 points to go along with six rebnounds, while Terrin Roy had seven points and seven boards off the bench. Igor Almeida had a well-rounded performance, scoring five points with five rebounds, four steals and a block.

The Owls had three players hit double digits, led by Marcus McCarthy's 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. McCarthy tied for a game-high with four threes, as teammate DeVon Beasley drained four triples of his own en route to a 14-point night. Edwin Ezedonmwen got off to a hot start but cooled off before finishing with 11 points on 4-of-13 from the field. Jeff Hunter hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds. The Spartans limited Anozie—who entered the day averaging 17.2 points and 7.2 rebounds—to just five points and six rebounds, but his final two points made the difference in the contest.

The game was tight early, as Keene led by just two points, 9-7, at the four-minute mark of play. The Owls then went on a 7-2 run to extend the lead to 16-9, before Brown rattled off 10 points in a 1:36 span to give Castleton a 19-18 lead with 11:11 to play in the half. The Owls called timeout to stop the bleeding, and came out of the stoppage stingier on defense, holding Castleton without a basket for nearly four minutes while taking a 23-19 lead. The Spartans tied it at 23-23 on a free throw by Almeida, but McCarthy answered with a three on the other end to give the Owls the lead once more. Keene State pushed the advantage to seven points once again—32-25—when Beasley made a pair of threes on back-to-back Owl possessions. Castleton closed out the half on a 4-0 run in the final 3:30 to make it just a 32-29 game at the half.

Castleton quickly tied the score in the second stanza, drawing the game level at 35-35 with 16:23 to play on an Almeida layup. The lead went back to the Spartans on a layup by Amadou Diakite just more than a minute later, but a three from Nick Redden on the other end gave the Owls an edge once more. The lead extended to five points with 12:21 to play when Beasley hit another three, making it 44-39 in favor of the visitors. A pair of free throws by Smith got Castleton back on the board before Denis LeCours buried a three from the top of the arc to knot the score at 44-44 with 10:12 to play. A trio of Spartan free throws gave Castleton a three-point lead—tied for its largest of the game—with 6:51 to play. The lead remained at three points inside of five minutes, but Keene leveled the score once again on a three from Ezedonmwen with 4:12 remaining. A pair of free throws by Brown gave Castleton a two-point lead once more, but the Owls tied the game on the ensuing possession.

With 3:08 to play and game tied at 51:51, Smith buried a three from the right wing with the shot clock winding down, giving the Spartans a three-point lead once more, 54-51. Keene State answered yet again, as McCarthy drained a three of his own with a hand in his face to bring it back to level, 54-54. Brown hit another two free throws with 1:33 on the clock to put Castleton ahead by two, but Anozie tied the game on the other end with a layup with 1:07 left.

Castleton had a chance for the final shot, taking over possession with 22 seconds left after a pair of missed free throws by Keene State's Hunter, but a costly turnover gave the Owls a final possession with 5.3 seconds left in the tied game. The ball was inbounded to McCarthy, who found Hunter in the paint. As the Spartan defense collapsed on Hunter, he shoveled the ball to Anozie who laid it in at the buzzer, lifting the Owls to a 56-54 win.

Castleton is back in action Saturday at 2 p.m. at UMass Dartmouth.