Castine, ME - The Castleton State Spartans beat the Lady Mariners from Maine Maritime 71-61 in a North Atlantic Conference battle on Saturday at Margaret Chase Smith Gymnasium. Christine Jaques (Burlington, VT) carried the Spartans to victory with 18 second half points.

The Lady Mariners found themselves down by 16 points (22-6) midway through the first half before they began to chip away at the Spartan lead. MMA went on a 16-1 run to finish off the half and go into the half trailing by only one point.

The lead changed hands six times in the second half, and with MMA leading 46-45, the Spartans went on another run that extended the advantage to 11 points with under five minutes to play and they never trailed in the game again.

Alyssa Leonard (Amherst, MA) had 15 points and eight rebounds in the win while Tarryn Bolognani (Whitingham, VT) chipped in with 11 points and eight rebounds. Jaques had a team high five assists to go along with her 18 points and also collected six rebounds. The Spartans outrebounded MMA 47-44.

The Lady Mariners were led by Alexis Bennett (Freedom, ME) who scored 11 points off the bench for MMA. Sam Goda (Eliot, ME) had eight points and a game high 10 rebounds to go along with four steals. Leah Jackson (Dedham, ME) had seven points and nine rebounds while Brittany Hunt (Hickory, NC) had a game high six assists.

With the win Castleton improves to 8-7 and 2-2 in the NAC while MMA falls to 9-6 and 3-1 in the NAC.