CASTLETON – Vt. – A quick start to the game and some clutch shooting down the stretch propelled the Vermont State University Castleton men's basketball team to victory on Saturday evening as the Spartans claimed an 85-77 win over Rhode Island College at Glenbrook Gym.
 
VTSU Castleton (6-12, 2-7 LEC) opened the game on a 19-3 run to establish an early edge, but Rhode Island College (12-6, 5-4 LEC) never relented and made it a tight game down the stretch. Leading by just a single point with less than a minute to play, Scott Lampron rose from the left wing and buried a three-pointer to give the Spartans a four-point cushion. The Spartans got a stop on the other end and were immediately fouled, with Adam Bilodeau knocking down a pair of critical free throws to pad the lead to six points. Bilodeau added the final two points of the game, grabbing his own rebound after a missed free throw and laying the ball in for the final score of the evening.
 
The Spartans controlled the scoreboard nearly the entire game, never relinquishing the lead after Joe Russell's layup put them ahead 4-2 less than two minutes in. VTSU Castleton shot 46.6 percent as a team and made a season-high 13 threes in the victory. The team was also 18-of-20 at the free throw line. RIC hit 40.7 percent from the field with 12 threes—nine of which came from a single player. The Anchormen also hit 17-of-22 at the free throw line and out-rebounded Castleton 40-29. The Spartans turned 18 Anchormen turnovers into 22 points offensively thanks to intense pressure on the ball over the entire length of the court.
 
Russell and Lampron had monster nights offensively, with Russell racking up 27 points and Lampron following with 24. Lampron eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone for his collegiate career in the first half. The fifth-year guard scored 741 points at Colby-Sawyer College and has amassed 273 points this season as a Spartan. Conner McKearin reached double figures with 12 points and Zach Thompson went for six points with six assists. Justin Schwarzbeck finished with five blocks and two steals as an active member of the defense and Will Radcliff had five rebounds, four steals and three blocks to go with six points.
 
RIC had three in double figures, led by Isaiah Dahl's game-high 30 points. Dahl hit nine threes and made all three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt. Ousmane Kourouma had 19 points and 11 rebounds and CJ Wilson added 10 points and five boards.
 
After Castleton raced out to a 16-point lead six minutes into the contest, RIC punched back with a 12-3 run of its own to make it 22-15 Spartans at the mid-way mark of the half. Castleton posted another lengthy run to pull ahead 34-15, rattling off 12 straight points thanks to buckets by four different players. The lead grew to a game-high 22 points—43-21—when McKearin converted a four-point play by drilling a corner three and the ensuing free throw after being fouled on the shot. Three consecutive triples by Dahl late in the half pulled RIC within 11 points, but Lampron's late free throws sent the Spartans to the locker room leading 49-36.
 
A 9-2 Anchormen run to start the second half halved Castleton's edge to just six points, 51-45, but Russell stopped the bleeding with a three to get the gap back to nine. A Lampron three and a McKearin layup pushed the lead back into double digits at 61-50, and Lampron buried another triple two minutes later for a 64-52 edge.
 
Dahl continued to keep RIC in the game, posting nine points in a row for the Anchormen during a stretch that featured only a Radcliff layup for Castleton. After the 9-2 run was said and done, Castleton's lead was 74-67 with less than five minutes to play. Russell hit a pair of free throws to slow things down and make it a nine-point game, but the lead began to shrivel as RIC posted seven unanswered points to get the score to 76-74. Two free throws by Thompson padded the lead to 78-74 but Kourouma brought RIC back within two on the next possession and 1-of-2 at the line by Wilson made it a one-point game with 1:07 to play.
 
Needing to fend off a charging Anchormen attack, the Spartans worked the ball to the outside, with Russell finding Lampron right in front of the home bench for a clutch three and a four-point lead with just 51 seconds remaining. That was all the offense VTSU Castleton needed, with the defense smothering RIC the remainder of the way for Castleton to hold on 85-77.
 
The Spartans are on the road next, taking on WestConn on next Saturday at 4 p.m.