MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
 
The Vermont men's basketball team continues league play Saturday night looking to get back into the win column when it heads out on the road to face America East foe Hartford at the Chase Family Arena starting at 7 p.m.
 
The game can be seen on AmericaEast.TV for free in HD and can be heard locally on ESPN 101.3 FM with AJ Kanell on the call.
 
RELATED LINKS
Vermont Game Notes (.pdf)
Hartford Game Notes
Hartford Game Coverage: Live Video – Live Audio – Live Stats
Albany Flashback: Game Recap – CatamounTV Highlights
 
Last Time Out vs. Albany: Mike Rowley scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Albany Great Danes handed the Vermont men's basketball team its first home loss of the season, 69-57, in front of 2,392 fans at Patrick Gym last Saturday. Trae Bell-Haynes and Kurt Steidl combined for 37 points of Vermont's 57 points as both continued their steady play. Bell-Haynes finished with 19 points, four rebounds and four assists while Steidl wrapped up the afternoon scoring 18, one shy of his career-high. The Albany lead hovered around ten for the first nine minutes of the second half before UVM showed its most promising stretch of the game. Ernie Duncan went coast-to-coast following a steal and then Ward found O'Day slicing to the rim for a bucket that cut the Albany lead to six, 46-40, with 10:10 to play. Albany's lead stretched back out to 12 just three minutes later and the Danes held on from there.
 
About Hartford: Picked to finish sixth in the America East preseason coaches' poll, Hartford comes into Saturday's matchup with a 6-11 record and fresh off a 76-72 road win over Binghamton. In the win over the Bearcats, reigning America East Rookie if the Week George Blagojevic scored 20 points while Pancake Thomas and Taylor Dyson each scored 18. Hartford boasts a new core of players after the graduation of six seniors from last year's squad. Among the newcomers is leading scorer Pancake Thomas, a transfer from New Mexico where he spent two seasons and made 10 starts as a sophomore. Thomas is averaging 15.2 points per game this season, which leads the team. Blagojevic scores at a 11.9 clip and leads the team shooting 43.2% from downtown. Head coach John Gallagher is in his sixth season at the helm in Hartford and has a career record of 78-107. He led the Hawks to their first ever postseason tournament in 2012-13 (CIT).
 
Series History: Vermont leads the all-times series with Hartford 43-23. This will be the 67th meeting between the two teams. The Catamounts have won 19 of the last 20 and 26 of the last 28 meetings against the Hawks.
 
Last Season vs. Hartford: Vermont swept the season series with Hartford last year – the ninth time that's happened in the last 10 seasons. In the first meeting in Burlington, Cam Ward came off the bench to score what was then a career-high 19 points to lead Vermont to an 81-69 win.  In the second meeting Kurt Steidl led all scorers with 16 points and the UVM defense held Hartford to just 22% shooting in a 65-46 victory over Hartford.
 
Top Cats in America East: Since the start of the 2002-2003 season, Vermont has 186 America East wins. That is the most in the league and 63 more than the next team (Albany - 123).
 
Cats in January: Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Vermont has gone 31-8 in the month of January. The Cats were 7-3 last season and 8-1 in 2013-14.
 
TBH on a Tear: Over his last four games, Trae Bell-Haynes is averaging 18.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game while shooting 59.1% (26-of-44) from the floor. When TBH scores 15+ points this season, Vermont is 5-4.
 
Mr. 1,000:  Ethan O'Day became the 34th Catamount with 1,000 career points when hit a free throw during the second half against Maine on Jan. 6. O'Day currently sits just 10 rebounds away from 500 in his career, as well, and would be just the 13^th Catamount to reach the 1,000 point/500 rebound club.