CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker on Wednesday night, coming up short at the horn by a score of 71-69 against Plymouth State in Little East Conference play at Glenbrook Gym.
Trailing by five points with 16 seconds to play,
Justin Schwarzbeck buried a three for Castleton with seven seconds left on the clock pull Castleton within two points.
Tray Wright picked off the in-bound pass for Castleton, but his contested three-pointer came up short before a last-second tip-in attempt by Castleton missed the mark and the horn sounded on the contest. The Spartans drop to 3-16 with the loss and 0-11 in LEC play. Plymouth State is now 9-12 overall and 2-10 in the league.
Both teams hit 26-of-57 field goals on the night, with Plymouth hitting 11 threes to Castleton's seven. The Spartans were 10-of-15 at the line and Plymouth State was 8-of-11. Rebounds were nearly even at 33-32 in favor of the Panthers, but Castleton outscored Plymouth 12-7 on second-chance points.
Carter Mackey led Castleton with 16 points and seven rebounds, shooting 8-of-11 from the floor in the contest.
John Walsh had 12 points and five rebounds, while Schwarzbeck and
Jordan Hunt added 11 points apiece.
Kyler Bosse led Plymouth State with 21 points while Giorgi Tsiklauri had a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double for the Panthers.
Plymouth State jumped out to an early 5-0 lead before extending the gap to 9-2 at the three-minute mark of the first half. Schwarzbeck dropped in a layup to make it 9-4 but Tsiklauri answered on the other end with a layup of his own. A 5-0 burst from Castleton drew the Spartans within two, but Plymouth State rattled off five points of its own to make it 16-9. Walsh then buried a three, but the Panthers had an answer once more with a three of their own for a 19-12 lead. A 6-0 Spartan run made it a one-point game, but Plymouth State kept Castleton at bay a moment longer with another three for a 22-18 lead.
Trailing 27-23 with 9:28 to play in the first half, Castleton began a 14-0 run that featured six points from Walsh and six points from Hunt. Walsh began the stretch with three free throws before closing the streak with an old-fashioned three-point play that brought the crowd to its feet. When the dust settled on the three-minute stretch, Castleton led by 10, 37-27. Bosse broke up the streak with a jumper for the Panthers, but a three by Schwarzbeck gave Castleton an 11-point lead, its largest advantage of the day, 40-29. Plymouth worked to chip away at the gap, but Castleton led by eight at the half, 43-35.
The Panthers began the second half on a 10-0 run to wipe out Castleton's lead and take a two-point lead of its own, 45-43. An 8-0 run by the Spartans put Castleton back on top 51-45, but a 12-1 run over the next four minutes put Plymouth State ahead 57-52. A Mackey layup made it 57-54, but the Panthers rattled off 10 straight points over the following four minutes to extend the lead to a game-high 13 points, 67-54 with 6:10 to play.
Castleton continued to battle, with Wright scoring nine straight points for the Spartans to pull the team within four, 67-63, with 2:54 remaining. Neither side scored over the next 90 seconds. Bosse hit 1-of-2 at the line for Plymouth State to make it 68-63 before Walsh hit 1-of-2 for Castleton for a 68-64 score. After Quinn Rotche hit a pair at the line to put Plymouth State ahead 70-64, Castleton went down low to Mackey for a quick two points and a 70-66 score. Rotche then hit 1-of-2 at the line for the Panthers to push the lead back to five. Schwarzbeck's three gave Castleton hope before Wright's steal gave the Spartans one final chance at victory. Two Spartan attempts in the waning seconds came up empty, sounding the horn on the 71-69 final score.
Castleton is back on the court Saturday at Eastern Connecticut State at 3 p.m.
