Box Score

NEW LONDON, N.H. – February 18, 2012 – Freshman Koang Thok (Portland, Maine) scored 25 points on 12-18 shooting as the Colby-Sawyer men's basketball defeated Castleton, 84-71 in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play.

Colby-Sawyer earns the number two seed in the upcoming NAC tournament. The Chargers improve to 18-7 overall and 15-3 in NAC play. Castleton holds onto the top seed, but falls to 16-9 overall and 15-3 in the conference. The teams will wait for the conference tournament matchups to be released later this evening.

Thok led all players with his 25 points and was the only player to score in double-figures in the first half with 15. Freshman Mike Dias (Carver, Mass.) shot 7-10 from the floor en route to 14 points off the bench. Junior Paul Holland (England, UK) was the third Charger to reach double-figures with 10 points. Senior James Tobin (Brookline, N.H.) added a team best nine rebounds and five assists.

Castleton was led by junior Mark Comstock's (Rutland, Vt.) 13 points. Freshman Chris Barletta (Hazleton, Pa.) was the only other Spartan to score double-figures with 11 points on 5-7 shooting. Junior Dammy Mustapha (Bellows Falls, Vt.) chipped in four points and a team best nine rebounds.

Senior Will Bardaglio (Wayne, Maine) gave the home team an early lead with a game opening three-pointer. The teams exchanged baskets over the next six minutes before Castleton took their only lead of the game at 16-14, on a Comstock three. The Chargers responded with an 11-3 run capped by a Holland lay-up. Colby-Sawyer led the rest of the half and by as much as 12 with 2:16 left after Thok scored his 13th point of the frame. He added one more with five second left as Colby-Sawyer took a 46-34 lead into the locker room.

Colby-Sawyer continued to knock down shots in the second half and held a double-digit lead for all but two minutes of the frame. The Chargers' lead ballooned to 22 on a Holland layup with 4:53 remaining. Castleton finished the game with a 9-0 spurt on a pair of layups by freshman Chad Pulver (Bennington, Vt.) and five points from senior Kyle Bennett (Bennington, Vt.), but fell 84-71.

The Chargers shot 51.5% from the floor, while holding one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country to 23.7% from beyond the arc (9-38). Although Castleton outrebounded the Chargers 43-36, Colby-Sawyer held a 50-32 edge in points in the paint.