CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's basketball team hosted Plymouth State in Little East Conference action on Monday night at Glenbrook Gym, dropping the contest by a final score of 88-51.
 
The Spartans fall to 5-16 overall and 0-12 in LEC play, while Plymouth improves to 12-9 with a 7-5 mark against league opponents. The Spartans shot 32.7 percent from the field, making 17-of-52, while hitting 28.0 percent from three (7-of-25). The Panthers knocked down 45.7 percent from the field (32-of-70) and 32.0 percent from three (8-of-25). Plymouth also hit 16-of-22 at the free-throw line while Castleton made 10-of-17. The Panthers dominated the glass, outrebounding Castleton 55-26 with an 18-3 edge in offensive rebounds.
 
Eric Shaw was the only Spartan in double figures scoring, racking up 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Justin Schwarzbeck added nine points and five rebounds, while Oluwadare Sowunmi had eight points and four boards.
 
Plymouth had four players score 10 or more points, led by Yansel Reyes' 18. Kyler Bosse and Manny Alisandro added 12 apiece and Devin Cooper had 10. Alisandro led all players with nine rebounds and Cooper had seven. Dante Rivera had four assists for the Panthers.
 
Plymouth State opened the game with a 13-2 run over the first six-plus minutes of play, and extended the lead to 17-3 before the second media timeout. Castleton had an 8-1 spurt later in the first half to bring the deficit back to just 10 points, 32-22, but an 11-2 run by the Panthers made it a 32-34 game late in the half. A final-possession bucket by Darrell Hardge sent the game to the locker room with Castleton trailing 43-26.
 
The Panthers continued to build on their lead in the second half, outscoring Castleton 7-3 over the first four-plus minutes of the frame. The Spartans answered back with a three from Johnny Torrence and a layup by Alex Blackmore, but Plymouth hit the same sequence in response to keep the distance at 55-34. An 18-2 run that spanned nearly six minutes late in the contest put the game all the way out of reach, 86-49. Each side logged two more points in the waning moments to give the game its final score of 88-51.
 
Castleton returns home on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against UMass Boston.