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BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Vermont men's basketball team, which stands in second place in the America East Conference, hosts UMass Lowell on Wednesday. Tipoff at Patrick Gymnasium is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Catamounts stand at 14-10, 9-2 in America East after a thrilling, 57-48, comeback victory at Stony Brook on Saturday. UMass Lowell is 10-14 and 4-7 in America East. The Riverhawks are coming off a 69-59 loss at Albany on Saturday. The game can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM (online: 1013ESPN.com) with A.J. Kanell on the call. The game will also be streamed for free in HD via CatamounTV.com.
TICKETS & PROMOTIONS
Tickets can be purachsed online at UVMathletics.com, in person at the UVM Athletic Ticket Office in Patrick Gymnasium (M-F: 9 a.m.-5 p.m), via the phone at 802-656-4410, or in person one hour before tipoff in the Patrick Gymnasium Lobby ... The first 100 students attending the game will receive an America East Playoff t-shirt ... Following the game free Coca-Cola products will be handed out to fans.
RELATED LINKS
Game Coverage - Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video
Game Notes (.pdf)
CatamounTV Highlights - Stony Brook
TD Bank Student-Athlete of the Week - Ethan O'Day
LAST TIME OUT - Vermont 57, Stony Brook 48 | Watch Replay of the Game: Click Here
Ethan O'Day scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Brandon Hatton scored a career-high 12 points off the bench to propel Vermont to a 57-48 win at Stony Brook on Saturday ... The Catamounts trailed by 17 points with 14 minutes left in the game and out scored the Seawolves 36-10 over to pull out the come-from-behind win.
Recaps: Burlington Free Press | OneBidWonders.com | NY Buckets.com
#JOSHSTRONG
The Catamounts are playing with some emotional inspiration from incoming recruit Josh Speidel ... Speidel (said spy-dell) was seriously injured in a car accident in his hometown of Columbus, Indiana on Feb. 1 and is listed in critical but stable condition in the ICU at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis ... He is one of the top seniors in Indiana and plays at Columbus North HS ... Read more about how the Catamounts are playing for Josh from OneBidWonders.com, click here.
ABOUT UMASS LOWELL
UMass Lowell is 10-14 overall, 4-7 in America East and coming off a 69-59 loss at Albany on Saturday ... The Riverhawks are without their leading scorer Jahad Thomas who suffered his second ACL injury in as many years ... The redshirt freshman ranked second in America East in scoring at 14.3 points per game and fifth in rebounds (6.5 rpg) ... Lance Crawford (8.8 ppg) and Chad Holley (8.4 ppg) are UML's leading scorers with Thomas out of the lineup ... Matt Harris is UMass Lowell's top 3-point threat having made 37, while Holley has drained 34 shots from beyond the arc ... As a team, UMass Lowell is averaging 60.6 points per game, while allowing 64.4 to its opponents ... The Riverhakws are shooting 41.1 percent from the field, 35.1 percent from 3-point range and 66.8 percent from the foul line ... UMass Lowell is being out rebounded 29.6 to 34.7 on the boards.
THE SERIES
Wednesday marks the fourth meeting between the two schools ... Vermont owns a 3-0 advantage against UMass Lowell after playing the Riverhawks for the first last season when the school joined America East ... Vermont posted a 61-50 victory at UMass Lowell on Jan. 25 in the first meeting of the regular season.
LAST TIME OUT - Vermont 61, UMass Lowell 50
Dre Wills set a new career-high for the second straight game with a team-high 20 points to lead four Catamounts in double figures as Vermont pulled away from UMass Lowell to post a 61-50 victory at the Tsongas Center on Monday ... Wills was 6-for-7 from the field, 8-for-10 from the foul line and added four rebounds and three steals ... Ethan O'Day added 13 points, while Kurt Steidl and Hector Harold chipped in 10 points each ... The Catamounts led by four with 3:28 left in the game and secured the win with a 7-for-8 effort from the foul line and held the Riverhawks to two points over the final 3:05 of the game.
DEFENSE
Vermont is 4-1 in its last four games and has held its last five opponents to 50 points or less ... UVM is allowing 48.0 points per game in its last five contests and holding opponents to 30.4 percent shooting from the field and 19.6 percent shooting from 3-point range ... Ethan O'Day has 11 blocks in five games and Dre Wills has picked up 13 steals ... UVM ranks 15th in the country in scoring defense ... Under John Becker, UVM teams have not allowed opponents to average more than 60 points in a season:
2011-12 60.9 - Becker
2012-13 59.2 * - Becker
2013-14 60.6 - Becker
2014-15 58.0 - Becker
* school record
COMEBACK KIDS
Vermont trailed Stony Brook by 17 points with just over 14 minutes remaining in the game at Island FCU Arena on Feb. 7 ... UVM came all the way back to post a 57-48 victory ... Brandon Hatton drained two 3-pointers and Ethan O'Day scored eight straight points to push UVM into the lead for the first time in the game with 5:44 left ... Vermont out scored Stony Brook 36-10 over the final 14 minutes ... The Catamounts limited Stony Brook to eight field goals (29.6 FG%) in the final 20 minutes ... It was UVM's biggest comeback since being down 18 in the first half to Illinois State and winning 87-76 (11/27/13) ... It was Vermont's biggest comeback in league play since a 57-40 win over UNH on 1/20/14 ... The Catamounts trailed by 12 at Patrick Gymnasium and came back to win the game.
TOP HAT-TON
Freshman Brandon Hatton scored a career-high 12 points in the comeback win at Stony Brook ... He was 2-for-4 from 3-point range and 4-for-8 for the game ... His key 3-pointer with 57 seconds left helped UVM seal the comeback win ... Hatton played on the high school varsity team since seventh grade and scored over 3,000 points in his high school career in Independence, Kentucky.
MAGIC NUMBERS
Vermont is 39-4 since the 2012-13 season when holding opponents under 60 pts ... UVM held Yale to 57, St. Louis to 58 pts and Albany to 47 ... UVM is 81-4 since 2000-01 when scoring 80+ points (last loss: at #6 Duke - 11/24/13 - L, 91-90) ... Vermont is 10-2 when Dre Wills scores 10+ pts in his career ... The Catamounts are 8-1 when Ethan O'Day shoots 61% from the field.
NCAA NUMBERS
Vermont ranks 15th in scoring defense (57.6 ppg) ... Is 14th in field goal percentage defense (37.7%) ... Dre Wills is 14th in the country in steals (54) and 15th in steals per game (2.25) ... Ethan O'Day ranks 44th in blocks (48.0) and 51st in blocks per game (2.0).
WHO'S NEXT
The Catamounts close out the two-game homestand hosting UMBC on Saturday ... Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at Patrick Gymnasium ... Tickets can be purachsed online at UVMathletics.com, in person at the UVM Athletic Ticket Office in Patrick Gymnasium (M-F: 9 a.m.-5 p.m), via the phone at 802-656-4410, or in person one hour before tipoff in the Patrick Gymnasium Lobby ... The Catamounts will be wearing special uniforms for the Rally Against Cancer/Play 4 Kay game iniative presented by Otter Creek Awnings and Vermont Custom Closets ... An auction for the game-worn jerseys is currently live, click here to place a bid today.
