FARMINGTON, ME – The University of Maine at Farmington (1-5, 0-2 NAC) falls to Castleton University (5-1, 2-0 NAC) Friday night in Dearborn Gymnasium in a North Atlantic Conference battle by a score of 83-66. 

RECORDS

The Beavers will fall to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the NAC while the Spartans will move to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

-        Chad Copeland held the top spot in points for the Spartans with 23 going 7-11 in the field, 2-2 from behind the arc and 7-9 at the charity strike.

-        Tondi Mushandu finished second on the team in points for Castleton with 16 going 6-9 in the field and 4-4 at the free throw line.

-        Michael Atkins held the top spot in scoring for the Beavers with 14, going 5-12 in the field, 3-5 from behind the arc while Riley Robinson finished with 13 points by shooting 50% from three-point land.

-        The Beavers shot 39.3% in the field with 29 total rebounds and 13 assists.

-        The Eagles held the advantage in shooting percentage with a 54.5% and tallied 36 rebounds. Castleton also had 10 steals on the night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half

The first half opened up with a lot of seesaw action with neither team being able to go on a scoring run. With 17:30 left to play in the first half, Robinson hit a three to tie the game at six.

The Spartans came right back down the floor to hit a three of their own from Copeland. Bill Ruby took a three of his own just 17 seconds later to tie the game up at nine.

About mid way through the first half, the Spartans were holding on to a five-point lead. Pavin Parrish hit a layup to push the lead to eight with just over nine minutes to play. Ruby then hit a free throw to cut it back to seven.

Pavin Parrish hit another layup at the 6:16 mark to put the Spartans up by 11. Ruby and Eric Berry each scored a couple quick points to make the score 31-23 with Castleton leading.

Chad Copeland hit a jumper to push the Spartans lead to 13 with just under two minutes remaining in the first half. About 40 seconds later Tondi Mushandu came away with a steal on a Isaac Witham turnover to give Castleton the easy dunk and put the score at 42-27 to end the first half.

Second Half

The second half opened up with a quick basket by the Spartans but the Beavers came right back and hit a three of their own. Robinson then hit another three to make the score 46-33.

The Spartans defense stepped up and held the Beavers to a scoring drought of about four and a half minutes while Castleton went on a 6-2 scoring run which made the score 52-35 with about 14 minutes left to play.

Farmington tried to climb back in it with a three pointer by Ryan Camire and then a jumper by Jimmy Chaisson, which cut the lead to 13.

Castleton was in the bonus very early in the second half and hit 15 free throws, two of which put the Spartans up by 19.

The Beavers tried to climb back in with a quick three by Atkins but the Beavers will come up short and fall to the Spartans 83-66.

UP NEXT FOR THE BEAVERS

-  The Beavers will host North Atlantic foe Green Mountain College tomorrow, tip-off set for 1:00 pm, while the Spartans will head to Waterville to face-off against Thomas College.