Colby College (1-0) tipped Saint Joseph's College (0-1), 99-95 in overtime, in the Castleton University Classic on Friday evening. The contest was the 2022-23 season-opener for both programs.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The teams battled through 13 tie scores and 11 lead changes in a game that was not decided until the closing seconds of the five-minute overtime period. Neither team held a double-digit lead in the evenly matched contest.
The Monks held their largest advantage of the night after senior forward Ashtyn Abbott (Farmingdale, Maine) registered a traditional three-point play to make it a 75-69 game with 6:49 left in regulation. St. Joe's remained in the lead until the closing seconds when a costly turnover ultimately led to a game-tying bucket from Colby's Will King, who tapped in a layup with four seconds left to make it an 82-82 game.
The Maine institutions traded blows during the first four overtime minutes with the score sitting at a 93-93 stalemate after grad Griffin Foley (Portland, Maine) made a pair of freebies with exactly a minute on the clock. The Mules proceeded to seal the triumph by going 6-for-8 from the FT line in the final 40 seconds.
STATS OF THE GAME:
Colby scored 31 points off 26 SJC turnovers and made 29 free throws – two shy of a Monks' opponent record – on 37 attempts from the charity stripe…Saint Joseph's suffers the loss despite outshooting the Mules by nearly 20 percentage points (63.2 – 44.8) while holding a 56-38 advantage in points in the paint.
LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:
- Foley led all players with 25 points and was 7-for-11 from the field and 10-for-12 from the FT line over 39 minutes
- Abbott came off the bench to contribute 17 points and six rebounds
- Sophomore guard Teagan Hynes (York, Maine) scored 14 points with three steals and two caroms
- Freshman guard John Paul Frazier (York, Maine) was 3-for-4 from three-point range with 13 points in his collegiate debut
- Senior forward Drew Shea (Mount Desert Island, Maine) added 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals
- Junior Camryn Yorke (Auburn, Maine) chipped in with seven points, five assists, four boards and a pair of steals
- Max Poulton paced the Mules with 21 points and pulled down four rebounds
- King scored 17 points with five rebounds, five assists and three steals
- Lucas Green added 16 points, four assists and three steals
- Noah Tyson netted 14 points with six caroms
With the loss Saint Joseph's falls to 4-10 all-time versus Colby College and has now suffered three-consecutive setbacks at the hands of the Mules.
Original source can be found here