CASTLETON, Vt. – Castleton State College came back from a ten-point halftime deficit, and withstood a late Pilgrim charge to earn a 66-59 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) women's basketball win over New England College Thursday evening at Glenbrook Gymnasium.

The Spartans have now won 13-straight games and improve to 19-4 overall and 16-1 in conference play. With the win, Castleton clinches the top-seed in the upcoming conference tournament and the right to host throughout. New England College slips to 17-7, 10-7.

Alyssa Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) led four Spartans in double-figures with 17 points. Leonard also turned in seven rebounds, five assists and three steals to fill out her stat sheet. Christine Jaques (Burlington, Vt.) added 13 points and six assists, while Vanessa Powers (Marshfield, Vt.) turned in an 11-point, 12-rebound performance for her third double-double in the past four games. Stephanie Bull (Milton, Vt.) tossed in 10 points off the bench.

Rachel Williams (Chapel Hill, N.C.) led NEC with 17 points, and Jessie Ledy (Pickford, Mich.) chipped in a dozen off the bench. Taylor Burgess (Randallstown, Md.)added 10 points and nine rebounds to round out the Pilgrims in double-figures.

Castleton struggled to find any rhythm in the early stages of the game as the Pilgrims raced out to a quick 7-1 lead after a Williams lay-up with 16 minutes remaining. The Spartans whittled the lead to 13-12 by the midpoint of the half on a Meghan O'Sullivan (Merrick, N.Y.) baseline jumper, but five minutes later NEC had pushed the lead to 21-14 on the strength of an 8-2 run fueled by a Katrina Muska (Brimfield, Mass.) three-pointer and the inside play of Williams and Burgess. NEC saw its first-half lead balloon to as many as 12 before settling in for a 31-21 lead at the interval.

A Williams lay-up four minutes into the second half pushed the Pilgrim lead to 39-26, but a 5-0 spurt that featured a lay-up from Leonard and a steal by Powers that ended in a Jaques three-pointer sliced the deficit to eight. After a Pilgrim timeout, Ledy answered with another three to push the lead back to 11, but Castleton continued to chip away at the lead and had cut it to 47-45 on a Tarryn Bolognani (Whitingham, Vt.) jumper with 7:36 remaining. Ledy answered once again with a cutting lay-up of a Burgess assist to get the lead back to four, but Castleton reeled off 13-unanswered points over the next five minutes of play. The Spartans took the lead for good on a Bolognani jumper with 6:40 remaining, and rode Leonard, Jaques and Powers to take a 58-49 lead with 2:44 left.

The Pilgrims did not go away, as Castleton struggled from the free-throw line down the stretch, and back-to-back threes from Jasmine Ledy (Pickford, Mich.) and Muska left NEC trailing 61-54 with just less than a minute remaining. It's as close as they would come, however, as Bolognani salted the game away with a 4-for-4 performance from the charity stripe down the stretch.

Castleton will wrap up regular-season play on Saturday at Colby-Sawyer. NEC can wrap up the fourth seed and a home quarterfinal game with a win over Green Mountain at home Saturday. Both games are slated for a 1 pm tip-off.