Castleton State College Bests Men’s Basketball, 77-72 in Overtime Thriller

CASTLETON, Vt. – Elms College senior guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.) swished five three-pointers including one to send the game to overtime, but Castleton State College received a game-high 26-point effort from Mark Comstock (Rutland, Vt.) and the Spartans notched a second half surge to send the game to overtime and pull out a 77-72 victory in Saturday afternoon's non-conference men's basketball game at Glenbrook Gym.

With the loss, Elms moves to 3-7 on the season, while Castleton State improves to 5-5 overall.

With the score set at 62-62 with 3:48 to play in regulation, Elms' junior forward Isaiah Odulami (Providence, R.I.) netted a jumper, before Comstock scored three of Castleton State's next five points to set the score at 67-64 with 1:00 on the clock. French then connected for a trey with 45 ticks on the clock to level the score at 67-67. The Spartans couldn't capitalize on Comstock's jumper with eight seconds left and the game was sent to overtime.

In the five minutes of extra time, French delivered the first points of the frame at the 3:12 mark when he converted a layup to give Elms a 69-67 lead. Dammy Mustapha (Bellows Falls, Vt.) drained a triple, but French answered with a three-pointer of his own to keep the Blazers' edge at two, but Logan White (Hartford, Vt.) registered the third straight three-pointer to give the Spartans the lead for good. Elms was held scoreless for the remainder of the contest and White hit four straight foul shots to help Castleton State claim a 77-72 win.

French was 9 of 17 from the floor and 5 of 12 from three-point range en route to 23 points and senior forward David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) scored 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting from the field. As a team the Blazers shot 43.9-percent from the floor and 38.5-percent from long distance.  Sophomore forward Kenneth Lockett (Atlanta, Ga.) and Odunlami hauled in a team-high seven rebounds and finished with eight and six points respectively. Freshman Derek Murphy (Columbia, Md.) added seven points off the bench in the losing effort.

The Spartans were led by Comstock who was 9 of 18 from the field, while White finished with 22 points on 7 of 16 shooting including four three-pointers. Mustapha added 10 points and Chris Barletta (Hazleton, Pa.) chipped in nine points off the bench as Castleton State shot 36-percent as a squad.

In the opening period, McDaniel canned a three-pointer that sparked a 13-0 run to start the contest; and the run also featured three-point makes from French and sophomore guard Piere Simpson (East Hartford, Conn.).

Castleton State chipped away at the Blazers' lead and with the score set at 21-20 in favor of Elms , Comstock converted a layup to give the Spartans their first advantage of the game with 8:53 to play in the stanza.

Elms regained the lead on a bucket underneath by McDaniel and extended its lead back to 10 on a jumper by senior forward Jamal Hulum (Norfolk, Va.) with 56 seconds remaining, before a White strike from beyond the arc set the score at 34-27 at halftime.

The Spartans continued to claw their way back into the game using six treys in the stanza to pull to within one (58-57) with 7:17 to play in regulation.

From there, Comstock added eight points and Tyler Ackley (Scotia, N.Y.) made a jumper to give Castleton State a 67-64 lead with 1:00 to go in regulation before French hit his fifth triple of the game to send the game to overtime.

Elms is back in action on Tuesday, January 8 when it hosts Lesley University in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action at 7:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.