CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's basketball team battled a tough University of Southern Maine program on Saturday, falling 69-39 in Little East Conference action at Glenbrook Gym.
 
Castleton falls to 3-14 with the loss and 0-9 in league play, with USM improving to 12-8 overall and 6-5 in conference action. The Spartans hit just 15-of-54 shots on the day with only two threes, while USM made 25-of-53 with nine triples. USM had a 39-34 edge on the glass and outscored Castleton 20-9 on turnovers despite turnovers being nearly even in the contest.
 
Tray Wright led Castleton in scoring with eight points, while Justin Schwarzbeck and Patrick Forstmann had seven points each. Three others had four points. Schwarzbeck had a team-high eight rebounds, while Wright added seven and Carter Mackey had six.
 
Cody Hawes led USM with 17 points, followed by Chance Dixon with 12, Mark Asare with 11 and Simon Chadbourne with 10. Hawes notched a double-double, adding 12 rebounds to his line.
 
Both sides struggled offensively early in the game, with Castleton leading 9-6 at the midway mark of the first half. USM used three straight layups to take a 10-9 lead before John Walsh finished a driving layup for an 11-10 Spartan edge with 7:38 to play in the half. Two straight USM jumpers made it 14-11 Huskies, but Castleton worked the score back to level at 16-16 after layups by Wright and Schwarzbeck. With four minutes to play in the half and the score tied, USM ended the frame on a 17-2 run, hitting five threes and a layup in the stretch. The outburst pushed the gap to 33-18 at halftime.
 
USM kept Castleton at bay in the second half, holding Castleton to no more than four unanswered points at any time in the stanza. USM had a seven-point run and an eight-point run of its own in the half to extend the gap further, eventually closing the night at 69-39 on the scoreboard.
 
Castleton gets back on the road Monday night at WestConn at 7 p.m.