CASTLETON, Vt. – Vanessa Powers (Marshfield, Vt.) led four Spartans in double-figures with 21 points, including the 1,000th of her career, as top-seeded Castleton State College downed the eighth seed Thomas College 78-41 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Women's Basketball Quarterfinal action Tuesday evening at Glenbrook Gymnasium.
With the win Castleton advances to the NAC Semifinal round for the tenth-straight season and improves to 20-5 overall. Thomas closes the book on the 2011-12 campaign at 6-19.
Christine Jaques (Burlington, Vt.) canned five three-pointers for 15 points, and also passed out five assists, while Alyssa Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) added 13 points and Meghan O'Sullivan (Merrick, N.Y.) added 10 off the bench. Kelly Conway (Rutland, Vt.) posted a game-high eight assists, while Powers corralled a game-high nine boards.
Lindsay Fry (Nantucket, Mass.) led the Terriers with eight points. Elizabeth Goodall (Oakfield, Maine) and Jasmine Bishop (Waterville, Maine) each turned in six-point, five-rebound performances.
Powers became the 12th player in program-history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau on a pair of free throws with five minutes remaining in the first half. The free throws gave Powers 16 points for the game and came during the midst of a 16-0 Spartan run that saw their lead balloon to 37-12 on a Powers lay-up with 4:30 left before halftime.
Jaques ended the first half with a three, and opened the second with another as Castleton pushed the lead to 47-17 just 10 seconds into the final stanza.
Castleton converted 30 Thomas turnovers into 32 points, and posted 20 assists on 27 field goals to just 11 turnovers on their own end.
The Spartans will square off with the winner of the (5) Maine Maritime/(4) New England College quarterfinal at Castleton on Friday at a time yet to be determined.