FINAL SCORE: Vermont 92, Hartford 81
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Kurt Steidl scored 19 of his career-high 26 points in the first half and Dre Wills recorded his third double-double of the season as the Vermont men's basketball team outlasted visiting Hartford, 92-81, Sunday afternoon at Patrick Gym. UVM improves to 15-12 and 7-5 in league play while the Hawks fall to 7-20 and 2-10 in conference action.
 
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Steidl canned five three-pointers in the first 20 minutes of the contest and finished shooting 5-of-9 from deep and 6-10-overall. The junior swingman also went 9-for-10 from the free throw line to polish off his first career 20-point game. Wills grabbed 12 of Vermont's 44 total rebounds and finished with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Ernie Duncan and Darren Payen each scored 15 points while Ethan O'Day added 10 points and eight rebounds.
 
Pancake Thomas poured in a game-high 35 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 8-of-13 from beyond the arc. He paced a trio of Hawks in double digits as Jalen Ross (16 points) and Evan Cooper (12 points) both scored 10+ points.
 
The Catamounts dominated the paint outscoring their counterparts 46-24 inside and winning the rebounding battle, 44-22.
 
Steidl scored six of Vermont's first eight points and a pair of the junior's free throws gave Vermont a 14-9 lead at the 12:58 mark. With the game tied at 15 with just under 10 minutes to go in the half, Steidl caught fire scoring 9 of Vermont's next 11 points – all on the long ball.
 
A Cam Ward circus layup gave the Catamounts their biggest lead of the day (13) with 5:16 remaining in the half but Hartford had the answer. The Hawks made six free throws in the final 2:30 of the half and closed the gap to 44-37 at the half.
 
Thomas delivered several high-difficulty trifectas to start the second half – the biggest of which gave his team a 63-60 lead with just over 10 minutes to play. Vermont scored the next five points, though, on a tough Drew Urquhart finish inside and a Trae Bell-Haynes triple to jump back in front, 65-63.
 
Three minutes later, Vermont – clinging to a three-point advantage – got a defensive stop and Wills found Duncan for a huge 3-pointer to push the lead out to six. It was a lead the Catamounts would not let go of as they scored 13 of the game's final 19 points en route to their 28^th win over Hartford in the last 30 meetings.
 
Next up for the Catamounts will be a Wednesday night home tilt against the Binghamton Bearcats at Patrick Gym. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. in the crucial matchup and all the action can be seen via a free HD stream on AmericaEast.TV. Local radio coverage begins at 6:30 with AJ Kanell and Bernie Cieplicki on the call.