BARRE, Vt. – The Castleton University men's basketball team made a furious comeback on Saturday afternoon, erasing an 11-point second-half deficit to Norwich University en route to an 89-80 win at the Barre Auditorium in the final game of the Granite City Shootout.
Norwich entered the day unbeaten at 4-0, but Castleton's win gave the Cadets their first blemish of the campaign and moved the Spartans to 5-3 on the year. Castleton won both games over the weekend and was the only team in the tournament to go 2-0.
The Spartans faced their largest deficit of the day with 15:21 to play after the Cadets buried a three to move up 53-42. A put-back layup and a made free throw by
Johnny Torrence started the comeback, as the Spartans put up five unanswered points to narrow the gap back to six. Norwich answered with a layup to keep the lead at eight, but an 8-0 run by Castleton tied the game with 10:49 remaining. In total, the Spartans erased Norwich's 11-point lead in less than five minutes of play.
The two sides traded the lead for the next three minutes, but
Alex Blackmore and
Jackson Atty knocked down back-to-back threes that gave Castleton the lead for good. Caleb Casinas hit a three for Norwich to cut the lead back to just one point, but the Spartans never relented, and eventually stretched the lead to eight points after a 6-0 run that was capped by a four-point play from
Darrell Hardge. Castleton hit each of its final four free-throws down the stretch to seal the victory, winning 89-80.
Torrence led all players with 22 points in just 22 minutes on the evening, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor while making 2-of-3 threes and 4-of-4 free throws. Hardge added 17 points, and Blackmore scored 14.
Joe Alamprese hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with seven points.
Norwich was led by 17 points apiece from Spencer Conaster and Owen Liss. Liss made 7-of-8 from the floor in the game. Donovan Lewis chipped in with 12 points, while Kyle Booth and Jalen Olivero reached double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Olivero and Kohlby Murray led the Cadets with seven rebounds each.
Castleton shot 45.6 percent (31-of-68) in the game, while Norwich was an impressive 51.6 percent from the field (33-of-64). Both sides made 12 threes in the game, but Castleton knocked down 15-of-18 at the line while Norwich shot just two free throws in the contest. Rebounds were nearly even, 32-31 in favor of the Cadets. Castleton scored 28 points off 22 Cadet turnovers, while Norwich cashed in on 22 points from 13 Castleton miscues.
The Spartans are back on the hardwood on Saturday, December 4, when they open Little East Conference play at Rhode Island College. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Providence, R.I.
