CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University women's basketball team picked up an emphatic victory over UMass Boston at Glenbrook Gym on Wednesday night, defeating the Beacons 53-32 in Little East Conference action.
The victory avenges a 78-55 January road loss to the Beacons and puts the Spartans' record at 12-8 overall and 5-6 in LEC play. UMass Boston falls to 6-11 on the year with a 5-6 mark in LEC action. The Spartans shot 35.6 percent from the field (21-of-59) and 33.3 percent from three (7-of-21), while holding the Beacons to just 27.1 percent overall (13-of-48) and 8.3 percent from distance (2-of-24). Castleton won the rebound battle 40-36, including a 13-8 margin on the offensive glass. The Beacons committed 23 turnovers which led to 20 Spartan points.
Ryleigh Coloutti logged a game-high 20 points on 7-of-19 shooting. She made 4-of-10 from three-point range and added four rebounds and three assists in the win.
Elise Magro collected nine points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals, while
Liz Bailey scored eight points with four rebounds.
Kelly Vuz had six points and six rebounds.
The Beacons' offense was stymied by Castleton all evening, with only four players finding the scoresheet. Keriann Farina scored a team-high 11 points, followed by Meg Dixon's nine, Sunny Green's seven and Vienna Monestime's five. Dixon was limited to just nine points and nine rebounds after scoring 35 points in the first matchup in January. Green had six steals to lead all players.
The Beacons got on the board first with a layup, but Castleton responded with consecutive layups to take a 4-2 lead. The Beacons locked the score up at 4-4 on the next possession, but a seven-point run for Castleton put the Spartans on top 11-4with three minutes to play in the opening quarter. The Beacons got five points back on a layup and a three, but Vuz buried a triple at the buzzer for Castleton to send the game to the second quarter with the hosts ahead 14-9.
Castleton scored the first nine points of the second quarter to take a 23-9 lead, with Coloutti and
Lauren Pratt hitting consecutive threes to cap the run. After Farina stopped the streak with a jumper for UMass Boston, Coloutti dropped in a layup and hit a three to push the lead to 28-11. The Beacons scored three straight points to stop Coloutti's stretch, but Castleton again beat the buzzer going into halftime, as Vuz found Bailey on the block for a layup and a 30-14 Spartan lead after 20 minutes.
The third quarter began with the two sides trading blows for the first four minutes, as UMass Boston cut the lead back to 15 points, 35-20, with four minutes gone in the frame. Castleton rattled off six straight points—five of which came from Coloutti—to extend the lead to 21, 41-20. Dixon made a layup to stop Castleton's run, but the Spartans tacked on three points in the final minute-plus of the third to extend the lead to 44-22 heading to the final frame.
Dixon banged home a three to open the fourth quarter, but Magro answered on the other end with a layup. After a three-point play by the Beacons, Perry made a layup that pushed the Spartans ahead by 20 with 7:48 to play. Neither side would score again for more than six minutes, when Bailey laid in a pass from Magro to stop the drought. After a pair of Beacon free throws, Magro buried a three with 50 seconds left on the clock to round out the Spartans' scoring. A last-second layup by the Beacons gave the game its final score of 53-32.
Castleton is back in action Saturday at Western Connecticut State University. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m.
