The Castleton women’s basketball team reminded the North Atlantic Conference that it is still a force to be reckoned with as the Spartans swatted away the Hornets of Lyndon State College, 82-46, at Glenbrook Gymnasium on Saturday.Lyndon St. looked outmatched from the start. Castleton used its physicality and size advantage to roll into the game with a 17-1 run capped by a Megan Johnson layup from Tarryn Bolognani at 4:41 of the first half.

Head coach Tim Barrett said that the team stressed that readiness to play was the key ingredient in another shot at a conference title.

“There was a lot of up-tempo play,” said Barrett. “We showed the readiness to play. It was a good team effort. We had five players reach double figures.”

The Spartans moved the ball soundly on offense and hit shot after shot. That, mixed with the dominance on the offensive and defensive boards and a high-energy shutdown defense led to a 46-23 halftime lead.

Lyndon St. came into the second half with a new found vigor, forcing Spartan fouls, but the shots just weren’t falling for the Hornets.

That flame of energy was quickly snuffed by Castleton, which continued its impressive ball movement and even more impressive finishing to improve its record to 10-7 (4-2 in NAC).

Castleton’s Christine Jaques led the way with 16 points, while Kristie Dunchus had 13 and Johnson, Vanessa Powers, and Alyssa Leonard had 10 each. The Spartans finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field and 15-for-20 from the charity stripe.

Lyndon’s leading-scorer, Donna Lawson, paced the Hornets with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Naomi White had nine and eight respectively.

The Spartans have one more game before they begin their second trip through the conference opponents.

“We’re showing signs of where we should be at this point [in the season],” said Barrett. “We need more consistency. We can’t let the game effort levels drop off.

“[For Johnson State on Monday] we’re going to keep doing the same thing; and that’s keep it up-tempo.”

Castleton travels to Maine this weekend to take on Thomas College on Friday and the University of Maine-Farmington on Saturday. The Spartans return home on February 11 against Maine Maritime.