NEW LONDON, N.H. – January 12, 2013 – Seniors Taylor DeSanty (North Adams, Mass.) and Cailin Bullett (Millbury, Mass.) had a record setting day, as the Colby-Sawyer women's basketball team handed Castleton its first loss of the season, 60-39 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) action Saturday afternoon.
DeSanty became Colby-Sawyer's all-time leader in career points when she canned a three-pointer at the 9:19 mark of the first half. She finished the game with 13 points, giving her 1523 for her career. DeSanty passed Beth Chartier Tower '97 who amassed 1514 career points.
Bullett set a new Colby-Sawyer record for career assists passing Erika DeSanty's '05 total of 486. The record setting dime came at the 12:47 mark of the second half when Taylor DeSanty finished a layup.
In a battle of conference unbeatens, the Chargers jumped out to an early lead that they would not relinquish. Colby-Sawyer improves to 10-4 overall and 8-0 in the NAC, while the Spartans suffer their first defeat of the season and drop to 13-1 and 6-1 in the NAC.
Castleton held Colby-Sawyer to 32.8 percent from the field, but the Chargers connected on six of their 13 shots from three. The Spartans also forced 18 turnovers, though they were outrebounded 53-35. Castleton shot just 25.9 percent for the contest and made three shots from beyond the arc. Colby-Sawyer entered the game with the fifth best field goal percentage defense in the nation at 29.8%.
DeSanty scored 13 to lead three Colby-Sawyer players in double figures and had eight rebounds. Cailin Bullet added 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while sophomore Kelsey Cahill scored ten. Senior Sammi Lehr chipped in eight points and a game best nine rebounds.
The Chargers jumped out to a 9-0 lead 4:12 into the contest. Leonard broke the scoring drought, and started a 9-2 run, which left the Spartans down 11-9 with 12:59 left.
Neither team scored for the next three minutes, before Cahill eventually ended it with a jumper at 9:56. Leonard countered with a layup, but Colby-Sawyer took control with an 18-2 run to grab a 31-13 lead with 4:02 remaining in the half. Castleton pulled back within 13, but a pair of Bullet free throws gave the Chargers a 36-21 lead at the break.
Colby-Sawyer opened the second half on a 9-4 run to extend its lead to 20, 45-25, with 14:50 left. The Spartans made a comeback attempt and cut the lead to 15 on a layup by Meghan O'Sullivan with 7:12 remaining. The Chargers countered with the next seven points over 4:50 to put the game out of reach and conclude with the 21-point win.
Colby-Sawyer will step out of NAC play and host Middlebury on Tuesday at 7:00 pm. Castleton hosts Johnson State on Thursday at 5:30 pm.