| Follow @UVMwbb
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Freshman
Sydney Smith scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Vermont Catamounts, but the New Hampshire Wildcats held off a late UVM rally to post a 64-56 win in America East women's basketball action at Patrick Gymnasium.
New Hampshire improved to 3-1 in America East and 11-5 overall, while Vermont fell to 3-13 and 0-4 in conference play.
RELATED LINKS
Box Score (.pdf)
CatamounTV Highlights
Photo Gallery Smith was one of five Catamounts with at least seven rebounds as UVM dominated the boards, out rebounding UNH 48-32 in the game.
Kylie Butler and
Emilie Cloutier added eight points and seven rebounds each, and
Niki Taylor chipped in nine points and nine rebounds.
UNH placed five players in double figures, led by Elizabeth Belanger's 14 points. Kaylee Kilpatrick added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"I thought we battled really hard for 38 minutes, but some mental errors down the stretch hurt us. We are getting closer, but we need more than one player in double figures. Holding UNH, which came into the game as a good scoring team, to 64 defensively wasn't the issue, it was us finishing out plays that made the difference," said Vermont head coach
Lori Gear McBride.
Vermont took an early lead to start the game, but the Wildcats used a 9-2 spurt to push out to a 13-7 advantage with 12:13 left in the first half. Vermont climbed back within four several times of the next five minutes, the last on a 3-pointer by Smith with 7:22 remaining in the half. New Hampshire out scored the Catamounts 12-7 over the final seven minutes to take a 31-22 lead into halftime.
UNH maintained its lead to start the second half, but a 3-pointer by Butler at the 11:05 mark allowed UVM to cut the advantage to one, 43-42. The Wildcats responded with a 12-3 run to push their lead back to eight with 4:53 remaining.
Vermont closed to within four on a basket by Cloutier with 1:15 left, but UNH was able to hold off UVM with a 4-for-4 effort from the foul line in the closing seconds.
The Catamounts shot 35 percent from the floor for the game and held UNH to 9-for-31 shooting in the second half. New Hampshire was aided by a 16-for-23 effort from the foul line, while Vermont went to the charity stripe 13 times.
Vermont hosts UMBC on Saturday (Jan. 17) at 2 p.m. in the team's annual "Pack The House Challenge" game. Tickets are available online at UVMathletics.com, in person at the UVM Athletic Ticket Office (M-F: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.), via the phone at 802-656-4410 and in person one hour before tipoff in the Patrick Gymnasium Lobby.
Kevin Fitzgerald will be calling the action on WVMT-620 AM (online:
SportsJuice.com) and the game will be streamed online for free in HD via
CatamounTV.com.
NOTES: The Catamounts played in front of a season-high crowd of 1,294 … Today's early tipoff was part of the Catamount Classroom event where local school children were invited to attend the game … Over 800 children from area schools were in attendance.