CASTLETON, Vt. — Southern Vermont College never trailed Sunday afternoon as the visiting Mountaineers topped Castleton University 100-82 in non-conference men's basketball action at Glenbrook Gymnasium.
Southern Vermont used a turnover off the opening tip to ignite a 9-0 run that put the Mountaineers in the driver's seat early on, and SVC would add a buzzer-beating three to go into the locker room up 50-32. The Spartans cut the deficit to 11 with just under five minutes to go in the game, but that would be the closest they would get as the Mountaineers hit three treys down the stretch to increase their separation late in the contest.
SVC stays perfect in the inner-state matchup, improving to 3-0 in the all-time series with Castleton while moving to an even 2-2 overall this season.
Southern Vermont is next in action on Thursday as the Mountaineers start their New England Collegiate Conference schedule with an 8 p.m. home game against Regis College.
Mountaineer senior DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Conn.) tallied team-highs of 18 points and seven rebounds, adding three assists and two blocks to his line; he has now amassed 1,210 points in his career, the fifth-most ever registered in SVC men's basketball history. Classmate William Bromirski (Cambridge, N.Y.) followed with 15 points on a 4-7 performance from downtown while sophomore Daemond Carter (Forestville, Md.) tied his career and season-high of 14 points off the SVC bench.
Junior Rayshawn Taylor (Silver Spring, Md.) notched 12 points in reserve time for the Mountaineers, and senior captain Antoine White (Bethesda, Md.) chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and a game-best seven assists in the victory.
SVC shot a season-best 59.7 percent from the floor (37-62) while the Spartans finished with a 41.1 percent clip (30-73). The Mountaineers were efficient from beyond the arc, going 12-19 for a 63.2 three-point percentage compared to Castleton's 32.5 trey percentage on 13-40 shooting. Southern Vermont took a 40-37 edge in rebounds while utilizing the Spartans' 14 turnovers to score 21 points; adversely, Castleton notched only six points off of the 15 SVC giveaways. Both teams' bench play was supportive, Southern Vermont's outscoring that of the Spartans by a 39-34 margin.
Castleton won the opening tip-off, but a turnover prevented the hosts from getting on the scoreboard and gave the ball to the Mountaineers. The visitors made that hurt, freshman Josh Borders (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) converting a layup for the first points of the game. SVC would make its next four shots, Borders drilling a three-pointer before a pair of free throws by senior Casey Hall (Albany, N.Y.) made it a 9-0 Mountaineer advantage that Castleton would be unable to recover from.
A pair of Spartan treys cut it to a 13-10 Southern Vermont lead with 13:32 to go in the first half, but Taylor scored the next five points before White added a free throw for six unanswered to extend the advantage. While Castleton knocked down three shots from downtown through its next four trips down the floor, Southern Vermont was able to respond to keep its upper hand.
A Bromirski three-pointer came midway through a 6-0 SVC spurt, and the Mountaineers would then notch 12 unanswered points for their biggest lead of the day at 42-24; Carter heated up from the outside during that surge, knocking down three straight treys to help open things up. White put down a three of his own at the 2:23 mark to bump SVC's lead up to 20, and he would then add another as time expired for the Mountaineers to go into the break ahead 50-32. Southern Vermont shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, going 8-9 from downtown for an outstanding 88.9 three-point percentage.
After only scoring four points in the first half, Hamlet started to get things going in the ensuing stanza. He scored the first basket of the period before adding another two buckets from down low to make it a 60-36 Mountaineer upper hand. Bromirski followed with his second three of the day for what would be Southern Vermont's largest lead all game, going up 63-38 with 15:13 left to go.
Castleton would not go quietly, however, outscoring SVC 33-19 over the next 10:16 of action to cut the deficit down to 11 points (82-71). The Spartans hit five three-pointers in that stretch while Castleton senior Chad Copeland (Plainfield, Vt.) registered 15 points to help close the gap. Hamlet was held to just six points in that time, but the Mountaineers then got back to their efficient ways to once again extend the lead. Bromirski hit a three-pointer before completing an and-one play to start an 8-2 SVC spurt, and he then followed up on a Carter trey with another of his own as Southern Vermont inched towards the 100 mark with 2:21 on the clock. Two free throws and a late layup got the Mountaineers into triple digits, moving back to .500 on the season in their final contest before starting league action.