FINAL SCORE: New Hampshire 57, Vermont 49
BURLINGTON, Vt. –
Sydney Smith had 15 points in the second half and
Hanna Crymble added 15 on the afternoon, but a valiant rally in the final 10 minutes came up just short as Vermont fell to New Hampshire 57-49 at Patrick Gymnasium on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
RELATED LINKS
CatamounTV Highlights
Box Score
Katie Lavelle grabbed four steals and the Catamounts held Brittni Lai, New Hampshire's leading scorer entering the matchup, without a point for the entirety of her 38 minutes.
UVM drew first blood early on after
Hayley Robertson fed
Kylie Butler for a three-ball just over a minute into the game. While Crymble chipped in a layup soon after, UNH stepped up defensively and did not surrender another Catamount field goal for the remainder of the quarter. That led to an 8-1 run for the visitors.
Both teams traded baskets in the first stages of the second stanza. Later, on support from Crymble,
Kristina White and
Candice Wright, the Catamounts drained seven consecutive points and trailed by just one at 16-15. However, that was ultimately as close as UVM would get to regaining the upper hand.
The Catamounts continued chipping away at an 11-point deficit early in the fourth quarter when
Lauren Handy hit a reverse layup at the 9:29 mark. Shortly thereafter it was Handy again who proceeded to draw a foul with 5:50 left, setting up Smith's bucket at the 5:25 mark to move the score to 48-44 in favor of UNH.
Handy buried from downtown with under three minutes remaining to bring Vermont within three at 52-49, but the Wildcats answered with the game's remaining five points to seal the victory.
The Catamounts shot 6-for-12 from the field in the final quarter en route to an 18-for-48 (37.5 percent) performance for the afternoon. New Hampshire was 21-for-58 (36.2 percent) shooting.
With the setback, Vermont falls to 4-13 on the season and 1-4 against America East foes. Now at 14-3 and 4-0 in conference play, UNH is the only remaining America East team undefeated in league action.
The Catamounts continue America East play at UMass Lowell on Thursday (Jan. 19) in a 7 p.m. tip off.