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ST. LOUIS - The Vermont men's basketball team closes out the first semester with a trip to St. Louis to meet the Saint Louis Billikens for the second time in program history. UVM stands at 5-5 and is coming off a 57-56 loss to Yale on Thursday that closed out a four-game homestand for the Catamounts. Saint Louis enters the game with a 7-4 mark and has won two straight and four of its last six, including a 75-69 victory over Texas Pan-American on Wednesday.
Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. (EST) from Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri. The game can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM (online: 1013ESPN.com) with A.J. Kanell calling the action. The game is also being broadcast on FOX Sports Midwest (click here to find the channel on your cable/satillite system). Live streaming of the game is available on the FOX Sports Go app (click here).
RELATED LINKS
TV: FOX Sports Midwest (click to find channel)
Game Coverage - Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video (Fox Sports Go app)
Game Notes (.pdf)
CatamounTV Highlights - Yale
Trae Bell-Haynes Learning Quickly on the Job - Big Apple Buckets' Ryan Restivo
LAST TIME OUT - Yale 57, Vermont 56
Matt Townsend's jumper with 4.1 seconds left in regulation lifted the Yale Bulldogs to a 57-56 win over Vermont ... Yale entered the game ranked No. 15 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 Poll ... Townsend scored four of his eight points in the final 2:44 when Yale needed it most ... Kurt Steidl led all scorers with 18 points, one shy of his career high. Ethan O'Day added 10 points and Dre Wills grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
ABOUT SAINT LOUIS
Saint Louis is 7-4 and in the midst of a six-game homestand ... The Billikens are 5-2 this season at Chaifetz Arena and are 51-8 on their home floor in the last four years ... Saint Louis has advanced to the NCAA Tournament each of the last three years and is on of 10 programs in the country to have advanced to the third round of the NCAAs in each of the last three seasons ... Austin McBroom leads the team in scoring (11.1 ppg) and has connected on 49 percent of his 3-pointers this season ... Mike Crawford posted a career-high 19 points in 75-69 win over Texas Pan-American ... Five of the Billikens' seven wins have come while holding opponents to under 60 points ... Saint Louis has won 65 games in a row when holding opponents to 60 points or less ... As a team, SLU is averaging 62.1 points per game, while giving up 61.2 to its opponents ... The Billikens are shooting 41.4 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from 3-point range and 67.3 percent from the foul line ... Saint Louis is being out rebounding opponents by a -4.8 margin ... Last year Saint Louis and Vermont were two of a handful of programs that started five seniors ... Jim Crews is in his third season at the helm of the Billikens ... He is 61-18 in three seasons.
THE SERIES
This is the second meeting between the two teams ... The Billikens defeated Vermont 62-43 at Chaifetz Arena on 12/7/11 in the first meeting.
HOMECOMING GAME
Sunday's matchup at Saint Louis is a homecoming game for Vermont senior Ryan Pierson ... Pierson is from St. Louis and played high school basketball at Christian Brothers where he was named First-Team All-Metro Catholic Conference, Post Dispatch All-Metro and All-State as a senior ... Pierson transferred to Vermont from Northeastern following the 2011-12 season ... He sat out 2012-13 per NCAA rules and saw his first action as a Catamount in 2013-14.
MIDWESTERN CATS
There are five players from the Midwest on the Vermont roster this season: Cam Ward (Marshall, Wis.), Ernie Duncan (Evansville, Ind.), Dre Wills (Indianapolis, Ind.), Zach McRoberts (Carmel, Ind.) and Ryan Pierson (St. Louis, Mo.).
DID YOU KNOW?
Former Indiana standout, NBA player and Evansville, Indiana native Calbert Cheaney is an assistant on the Saint Louis coaching staff ... Vermont freshman Ernie Duncan also an Evansville, Indiana native, is Evansville Harrison High School's all-time leader in scoring ... Duncan, who is redshirting this season with a back injury, passed Cheaney on the scoring list at Evansville Harrison HS.
WHO'S NEXT
Vermont takes a break for the Christmas holiday and returns to action with a two-game swing in southern California ... UVM will face USC on December 30 at 11:30 p.m. (EST) and UC Santa Barbara on January 2 at 10 p.m. (EST) ... The USC game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network (click here to find the channel on your cable/satillite system) ... Both games can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM (online: 1013ESPN.com) with A.J. Kanell on the call.
CATAMOUNTS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Vermont will travel to the Los Angeles area for a pair of games after the Christmas holiday ... On December 30, Catamount fans are invited to a reception at the Jonathan Club prior to the game versus USC ... Fans can join University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan and his wife Leslie Black Sullivan '77, as well as head coach John Becker at the gathering, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ... The game between Vermont and USC will tip off at 8:30 p.m. (local time) at the Galen Center on the USC campus ... Tickets to the game are available for $20 and can be picked up at the reception until 7 p.m. or at "Will Call" at the Galen Center after 7:30 p.m. ... Please click here to register for the reception and purchase tickets to the game.
