Cats Roll to Largest Victory Ever over Dartmouth, 77-46
Lonergan Picks Up First Division I Road Win

By Bruce Bosley, UVM Athletic Communications Office

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

HANOVER, N.H. -- A game-high 19 points by Martin Klimes (Prague, Czech Republic) led four Catamounts in double figures as Vermont rolled past Dartmouth, 77-46, in men's college basketball at Leede Arena on Wednesday night.

In winning for the first time this season on the road, Vermont (4-5) shot a season-best 64 percent from the floor and went a blistering 63 percent (10-for-16) from 3-point range. The Catamounts jumped to a 39-19 lead at the break and shot 75 percent from the field in the second half.

The victory was UVM’s seventh straight overall over the Big Green (1-6) and its eighth straight in Hanover. The 31-point difference also is Vermont’s largest margin of victory in the 90 meetings of the series that began in 1900.

"It was the first time this year I thought we were successful in establishing our inside game to set up our outside game," Vermont Coach Mike Lonergan said. "Our big guys were eight-for-10 right out of the box and that really got us going. On the other end, we were really concerned with (Leon) Pattman and Kyle (Cieplicki) did a great job on him."

Cieplicki (Shelburne, Vt.) limited Pattman, the Big Green’s leading scorer at 12.3 points per game, to just seven points while leading the UVM effort from the perimeter. He made 4 of 5 3-point attempts en route to equaling his career-high with 14 points. In the last four games Cieplicki has made 12 of his 18 3-pointers (67 percent) after starting the season making just 4 of 18.

Klimes was nearly unstoppable inside, hitting 8 of 9 shots in just 23 minutes of action. The Catamounts also got a huge boost off the bench by Josh Duell (Scotia, N.Y.) who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc for a season-high 13. Chris Holm (Henderson, Nevada) chipped in with 10 points, all in the first half.

Freshman point guard Mike Trimboli (Norwalk, Conn.), Vermont’s leading scorer coming into the game (15.3 ppg), tallied only five points but dished out 12 assists, tying five others for the third most in a single-game in UVM history. The last Catamount to have at least 12 assists in a game was T.J. Sorrentine ’05 who had 12 at New Hampshire on Jan. 10, 2001.

Vermont’s defense limited Dartmouth to shoot just 36 percent overall and 21 percent (4-for-19) from 3-point range, while forcing 16 turnovers. Michael Giovacchini led the Big Green with 10 points and Paul Bode tallied eight.

After a holiday break, Vermont returns home to host American on Thursday, December 29 at 7:00pm (Radio: WXZO 96.7 FM, WEAV 960 AM and WCVR 102.1 FM; Internet: www.sportsjuice.com). General admission tickets are available for all Vermont regular season home games at the UVM Athletic Ticket Office by calling 1-866-4-CAT-TIX. Tickets are also available on line at www.uvmathletics.com.

Box Score: http://www.uvm.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/boxscores/122105.htm