PLYMOUTH, N.H. – The Castleton University men's basketball team made a furious comeback attempt in the second half, but was unable to complete the feat as the Spartans fell to Plymouth State 70-58 in Little East Conference action Wednesday night.
 
The Spartans (3-10, 0-5 LEC) trailed by as many as 21 points early in the second half before going on a 19-2 run that covered more than six minutes of play to pull within four points. That was as close as Castleton could get as Plymouth (7-8, 1-6 LEC) answered the call late in the contest to hold on for the victory.
 
Castleton shot 33.9 percent in the contest (19-of-56) while Plymouth State connected at a 39.3 percent rate (24-of-61). The Panthers used a strong three-point night to top the Spartans, hitting 13 threes to Castleton's three. The Spartans made 17-of-21 at the free-throw line while Plymouth State made 9-of-12. The Panthers grabbed 46 rebounds to Castleton's 31. The Spartans cashed in 20 points on 16 Panther turnovers.
 
Tray Wright amassed 19 points 6-of-10 shooting from the floor while John Walsh had a season-best 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting and 6-of-6 at the line. Walsh also had three steals and five rebounds. Jordan Hunt had his third double-digit scoring game in a row, netting a season-high 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting with seven rebounds. Justin Schwarzbeck also grabbed seven rebounds with four points.
 
Kyler Bosse led all scorers with 28 points while Giorgi Tsiklauri added 15 and Rylan Canabano had 12. Bosse also led the Panthers with 11 rebounds and four assists.
 
Plymouth struck first in the game on a three by Canabano, but three unanswered baskets by Castleton had the Spartans leading 6-2 five minutes into the game. The Panthers bounced back with a 14-0 run that included four threes over the ensuing two-plus minutes, giving PSU a 17-6 edge. The lead grew to 38-22 at halftime as Plymouth dropped in a layup just before the horn.
 
A 7-3 run that culminated in a three by Plymouth State made it 50-29 with 15 minutes to play, but Castleton responded with a lengthy run of its own to get back in the game. The streak started with a pair of free throws by Walsh before Hunt canned a three. After two more free throws by Walsh, Hunt and Wright hit back-to-back layups to make it 50-40. Patrick Forstmann made a jumper before Wright hit 1-of-2 free throws to pull Castleton within seven, 50-43. A Bosse jumper stopped the scoreless skid for Plymouth, but Mu Moore hit two free throws and Wright converted a three-point play the old-fashioned way to make it 52-48. The two teams traded layups to stay at a four-point gap, but Plymouth used an 8-0 run to push its lead back to double figures and hold off Castleton the rest of the way.
 
The Spartans are back in action on Saturday when they host UMass Dartmouth at 3 p.m. at Glenbrook Gym.