Women’s basketball wins nailbiter

Jade Desroches scurries through Mount Holyoke defenders on Saturday.
Christopher Williams / Castleton Spartan

The Castleton Women’s basketball team used a high scoring first half to defeat Bates College 58-55 to win the Rutland Herald Tip Off Classic at home Sunday.

The Spartans started off the first half highly efficient, making basket after basket with few misses.

A deep three-pointer from senior Ali Jones started off the scoring for Castleton.

Castleton guard Lindsay Sabo then displayed her shooting abilities scoring back to back three pointers to make it 9-3.

From there, the Spartans just simply couldn’t be stopped.

Seniors Jade Desroches and Meghan O’Sullivan took control of the game in the first half  giving the Spartans a 43-23 lead at the half. It appeared the game was over.

But Bates continued to battle.

A second-half surge spearheaded by Bates forward Bernadette Connors gave them a 9-4 run to start things off.

Bates continued to play stingy defense in the second half, stopping many Spartan opportunities.

The Bates rally continued when Molly Brown swished both of her free throws to tie the game at 55.

But, again it was Desroches who weaved through Bates defenders, and made a beautiful layup while getting fouled to give the Spartans a 58-55 lead after hitting a free throw.

O’Sullivan then blocked the final Bates opportunity to give the Spartans the win.

Head coach Tim Barrett said he was pleased to see his team pull out a tough win.

“We bent a little bit, but didn’t break, and we were able to get some big stops at the end of the game, and executed on the offensive end,” he said.

O’Sullivan was excited to see the team start the season off with two wins.

“It’s such a new team, and we really didn’t know what to expect when it came to game time,” she said.

The win moves the lady Spartans to 2-0 on the year.

They resume action again on Nov. 20 against Middlebury College at home.

 

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