LYNDONVILLE, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's basketball team posted a fourth-quarter comeback victory on Wednesday night, taking a 70-60 victory on the road at Vermont State University Lyndon.
 
Trailing by six points early in the final quarter, the Spartans buckled down on defense and found their rhythm on offense. Liz Bailey scored five straight points and Maggie McKearin converted a three-point play as part of an 8-0 run that saw the Spartans regain the lead, 53-51. Lyndon tied the game at 53-53, but Castleton rebounded with layups by Stasia Epler and Kathryn Moore to go ahead 57-53.
 
VTSU Lyndon was resilient with a pair of free throws to halve VTSU Castleton's lead to 57-55, but three different Spartans notched layups to cushion the lead, 63-55. A three-point play by the Hornets narrowed it back to 63-58 before Emily Adams dropped in back-to-back layups for the Spartans' largest lead of the night at the time, 67-58, with only 1:23 to play. Adams added a final layup after Elise Magro hit a late free throw to give the Spartans the 10-point victory.
 
The win was the 33rd in a row for the Spartans against VTSU Lyndon, with Castleton's winning streak dating all the way back to 1999. Castleton shot 55 percent from the field in the fourth quarter, outscoring Lyndon 25-10 in the final 10 minutes. Castleton finished the game at 37 percent as a team and went 50 percent from three on limited attempts. The Spartans also hit 13-of-18 at the line. The Hornets shot 32.4 percent overall and hit eight threes. Castleton turned 17 Hornet turnovers into 19 total points on the night, turning defense into offense when it mattered most.
 
Magro had a game-high 20 points, followed closely by Epler's 17-point night. Magro also tallied four steals and three assists. Adams and Arianna Coombs had eight points apiece. Kathryn Moore had a monster night on the glass, hauling in 14 rebounds along with seven points. Liz Bailey snagged 10 boards with seven points and three blocks.
 
Lyndon was buoyed by 16 points from Sage Smith and 12 points from Riann Fortin. Saleena Porter snagged 12 rebounds and five assists in addition to nine points and Kiara Mack notched eight points for the Hornets.
 
VTSU Castleton got off to a good start, leading 6-2 through the first three minutes of play. VTSU Lyndon then went on a 5-0 run to take a 7-6 lead. Castleton went back ahead 10-9, but two late threes that bookended a free throw for the Hornets gave Lyndon a 16-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
The hot hand carried into the second for the Hornets, as Smith buried a third three and Mack laid in a bucket for a 21-10 lead for Lyndon. Castleton responded with six unanswered points on a layup by Adams and two baskets by Magro to cut it back to 21-16. The Spartans later used a four-point run to pull within a possession, 25-22, but another Hornet triple pushed the gap back to 28-22 late in the quarter. A layup and a three on back-to-back Castleton possessions by Moore pulled Castleton to within a point at halftime, 28-27.
 
Lyndon extended its lead to 30-27 a minute after the break, but Epler buried a three to tie the score and Coombs hit a jumper to put Castleton back ahead for the first time since the first quarter. Five straight points by Fortin for Lyndon put the Hornets back ahead 35-32, but Castleton responded with four in a row to regain the lead thanks to an Epler free throw and a Magro three. The two sides went back-and-forth for a few minutes before Lyndon used five unanswered points to take a 49-43 lead with less than a minute to go in the third. Epler dropped in a layup to make it 49-45 but a free throw with less than a second left in the frame gave the Hornets a 50-45 lead going to the final frame.
 
After the Hornets extended the lead to six early in the fourth, Castleton took over from there to preserve its lengthy winning streak against the Hornets.
 
The Spartans close out the first half of the season on Saturday with a Little East Conference game against WestConn at Glenbrook Gym. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m.