Strong Second Half Lifts Vermont Past Stony Brook

By Bruce Bosley, UVM Athletic Communications Office

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Josh Duell (Scotia, N.Y.) scored 14 points to lead a balanced attack as Vermont used a strong second half to top Stony Brook, 71-58, in America East men's basketball at Patrick Gym Wednesday night.

With the win, the Catamounts (10-11) improve to 6-5 in America East play to take over sole possession of third place, while Stony Brook falls to 4-17 overall and 2-9 in the conference. Vermont avenged an earlier defeat on Jan. 5 at Stony Brook, its first-ever loss in the first 10 meetings in the series that began in the 2001-02 season.

“A goal of ours is to finish in the top half of the league so tonight was a must-win game for us,” said Vermont Coach Mike Lonergan. “In the first half we were not playing well on defense but were getting good shots that just did not go in. Our intensity level really was much better on both ends in the second half and we played a lot more loose. We also turned it over less and our rebounding was much better.”

Lonergan also singled out the play of Chris Holm (Henderson, Nev.) and Mike Trimboli (Norwalk, Conn.) in the second half along with solid all-around effort by Colin McIntosh (Milton, Mass.), who had his best game as a Catamount.

The Seawolves used solid defense to lead 28-26 at the half before the Catamounts settled down and shot 54 percent in the second half to pull away with the victory. Stony Brook forced 10 Vermont turnovers in the first half before UVM committed just four the rest of the way.

Holm had five points in a 9-0 run in the first three minutes of the second half as Vermont took control of the contest. Holm, held scoreless in the opening 20 minutes, finished with nine points in the second half while Duell chipped in with eight.

Holm also had a game-high nine rebounds, eight in the second half, as the Catamounts outrebounded SBU, 44-31, for the contest with a 24-15 edge after the break.

In addition to Duell and Holm, McIntosh, a freshman forward scored a career-high 13 points on 6-for-9 from the floor and had six rebounds. Trimboli also tallied 13 points along with a game-high six assists while Kyle Cieplicki (Shelburne, Vt.) added seven points and three assists.

Vermont shot 46 percent from the field and 39 percent from three-point range for the game while limiting Stony Brook to just 33 percent from the floor and 33 percent from beyond the arc (4-for-12).

The Seawolves also had three players tally in double-digits with Mitchell Beauford leading the way with a game-high 16 points. Mike Popoko and Bobby Santiago each added 10 points. Freshman Tre Cunningham had six points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Vermont is at UMBC on Saturday at 4:00pm (Radio: WXZO 96.7 FM, WEAV 960 AM and WCVR 102.1 FM; Internet: www.sportsjuice.com) before returning home to host Maine next Wednesday at 7:00pm (TV: NESN). General admission tickets are available for all Vermont regular season home games at the UVM Athletic Ticket Office at at 1-866-4-CAT-TIX or 802-656-4410, and they are also available on line at www.uvmathletics.com.

Box Score: http://www.uvm.edu/athletics/mens_basketball/boxscores/020806.htm