CASTLETON, Vt. - February 6, 2018 - The Colby-Sawyer men's basketball team was able to hold off a late run to edge Castleton, 73-70, in  an important North Atlantic Conference (NAC) road game on Tuesday evening. 

Colby-Sawyer earns the two-game sweep over Castleton by a combined five points after beating the Spartans 71-69 at home back in December. The Chargers improve to 14-7 overall and sit in third place in the NAC standings with an 11-4 record. The team will celebrate senior day on Saturday at home against New England College at 3 p.m. Castleton drops to 12-10 overall and 9-6 in the NAC. The Spartans travel to Thomas on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tip. 

Sophomore Dana Bean (Franklin, N.H.) led Colby-Sawyer with 20 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Patrick Coffey (Westford, Mass.) added 16 points and three blocks. Freshman Nate Trevino (Boerne, Texas) scored a career-high 14 points and grabbed nine boards. Senior Taylor Grande (Bedford, N.H.) contributed nine points, four assists and three steals. Grande moved into 8th in career steals with 161. 
 
Pavin Parrish shot 7-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-7 from behind the three-point line, to score a season-high 22 points for Castleton. Tondi Mushandu finished with 10 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Tyler Arsenault and Julian Santos scored eight points apiece, and Jordan Nelson contributed six points, three rebounds, and seven assists.
 
Castleton ran out to a 15-6 lead five minutes into the game, and then a layup by Josh Hanson gave the Spartans a 20-12 advantage. Colby-Sawyer put together a 9-2 scoring run, capped by a Dana Bean jumper, to close to within one at 22-21, but Castleton answered with baskets by Nelson and Arsenault to extend its lead back to five at 26-21 with 5:34 left in the first half.
 
Colby-Sawyer closed out the first half with a 16-2 scoring run, including six points from Coffey, to take a 37-28 lead into the locker room at halftime. The two teams traded points until midway through the second half, when Castleton was able to cut the deficit to six at 50-44.
 
The Chargers answered back with a 9-2 scoring run, capped by a three-pointer from Taylor Grande, and then layups by Dana Bean and Nate Trevino gave Colby-Sawyer its largest lead of the night at 65-51 with 5:19 remaining in regulation. Castleton started chipping away at the Charger lead, first hitting four free throws before a steal and a dunk by Richard Walker brought the Spartan deficit back into single digits.
 
The visitors held an eight-point lead with two minutes to play when the Spatans mounted a comeback bid. Parrish knocked down a trey with 46 seconds left on the clock to pull the home team within a possession, but Jourdain Bell was able to hit two free throws to extend the Charger lead back to five at 70-65.
 
Parrish hit a contested jumper with 33 seconds remaining, and then Grande would make one of two free throw chances to give Colby-Sawyer a four-point advantage. After empty possessions by each team, Walker hit a three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left on the clock to bring Castleton within one at 71-70. Grande added two free throws to push the Chargers in front by three and Castleton was unable to get a shot up in time giving Colby-Sawyer the big road win. 

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