FINAL SCORE: Vermont 66, New Hampshire 50
DURHAM, N.H. – The Vermont men's basketball team turned in its best defensive performance of the season holding New Hampshire to 23.7% shooting and John Becker earned his 100^th win at UVM leading his Catamounts to a 66-50 win over the Wildcats in Durham. Vermont has now won three straight games improving to 5-2 in league play and 13-9 overall while New Hampshire falls to 4-3 in America East action and 11-9 overall.
 
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Ethan O'Day led all scorers with 19 points (13 in the first half) on 8-of-12 shooting. Kurt Steidl chipped in with 13 points and seven rebounds. In total five Catamounts scored at least eight points.
 
Jacoby Armstrong paced UNH with 13 points while Ronnel Jordan also reached double-digits with 10.
 
The game started as a good old-fashioned rock fight as neither team could find the touch early on. Ernie Duncan (eight points) got the Cats on the board when he buried a three-pointer from the right wing and then O'Day picked up his first bucket streaking the lane in transition finishing a dunk on a pass from Duncan. Vermont led 5-4 at the 15:02 mark of the first half.
 
UVM pushed its lead out to six when Darren Payen knocked down an 17-foot jumper from the left wing and then the advantage stretched to 10 as Drew Urquhart found Steidl on a nifty back-door feed. The scoreboard read 26-16 Catamounts with 2:54 to go in the half.
 
UNH scored eight points in the next two minutes on layups from Jordan, Jaleen Smith and Armstrong but O'Day corralled a offensive rebound and placed it home at the halftime buzzer to give his team a 31-24 lead at the break.
 
Vermont held UNH to 24.1% shooting (7-of-29) in the first half.
 
The Catamounts continued to execute to start the second half bolting out of the locker room on a 15-5 run over the first seven minutes of the half. UNH made just one field goal during that stretch going 1-for-11 from the field. At the other end, Trae Bell-Haynes finished a driving layup and Kurt Steidl capped the run with a huge trifecta to put the Cats up 17 (46-29) with 13:13 to go in the game.
 
Armstrong threw down back-to-back dunks to cut the lead to 13 but that's as close as New Hampshire would get the rest of the way. Kurt Steidl hit a fadeaway jumper in the corner plus a foul to push the lead to 20 at the 6:40 mark. Dre Wills bullied his way into the paint all second half and collected his third second-half bucket with 5:33 remaining to keep the lead at 20.
 
The Catamounts return home on Saturday for what will be the latest installment in the Vermont-Stony Brook rivalry. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:02 and the game will be aired on ESPN3 and the ESPN App. Local radio coverage on ESPN 101.3 FM starts at 1:30 p.m. with AJ Kanell and Bernie Cieplicki on the call.