BURLINGTON, VT – The Catamounts used a career-high from first year Paula Gonzalez to fight back from an early deficit and earn a victory over America East foe New Hampshire at Patrick Gym on Saturday afternoon. With the win Vermont earns their 10th win of the season improving to 10-6 (2-2 AE), while the Wildcats fall to 5-11 (0-4 AE) with the defeat.  
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score | Box Score (.pdf)
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COACH'S QUOTE
"It was a great home conference win in front of an awesome crowd," said Mayer Head Women's Basketball Coach Alisa Kresge. "I know our players really appreciate all of the support from our fans. I thought we handled and shared the ball well against UNH. We'll need to get back to work and have two good days of preparation for our next game against UMass Lowell."

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Delaney Richason started the scoring by knocking down a three from the left wing on the Catamounts opening possession to put Vermont up 3-0 with 9:41 remaining in the first quarter.
• The Wildcats would answer going on an 11-4 run of their own, led by seven from first year Avery O'Connor, to take an 11-7 lead with 3:52 remaining in the quarter.
• Both teams traded blows over the final three plus minutes with the Catamounts holding a 10-7 advantage, led by five from Catherine Gilwee, to cut the deficit to just 18-17 heading into the second quarter.
• Gilwee started the scoring for the Catamounts in the second quarter drilling a three pointer with 8:34 remaining to give Vermont back the lead, 20-18.
• Brooke Kane answered with a driving layup on the other end for New Hampshire to knot the score up at 20 with 8:05 remaining. However, from there it was all Catamounts as they outscored the Wildcats 13-7 over the final eight minutes. During that span UVM had six different scorers led by Gonzalez and Delaney Richason who each had three points. Vermont would take the 33-27 lead into the halftime.
• Gilwee continued her hot game again knocking down a three pointer to start the scoring for the Catamounts in the third quarter. Her three put Vermont up 36-27 with 8:43 remaining and helped spark a 16-7 spurt that allowed the Catamounts to extend their lead to double digits, 49-34, with 4:02 remaining following a converted and-one fast break layup from Emma Utterback.
• UNH would not go away battling back to outscore the Catamounts 12-7 over the final three plus minutes and cut the lead back to just 10. Led by 6 from junior center Paige Cote the Wildcats were able to cut the deficit to just 56-46 entering the final stanza.
• Cote then scored the opening bucket for New Hampshire with an and-one to cut the deficit back to single digits, 56-49, with 9:43 remaining.
• Vermont would not allow the comeback though with Gonzalez converting a layup to spark a 10-2 run that was capped off by another Gilwee three with 5:12 remaining in the game to put Vermont up 66-51.
• UNH had one last effort with back-to-back layups to cut the score to 66-55 with 3:12 remaining, but Vermont was able to stand firm to score the last six points of the game and give the game its final score of 72-55, following a Maria Myklebust layup with 21 seconds remaining.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• First year Paula Gonzalez scored a career-high and tied for game-high 15 points to go with four rebound and three assists on an efficient 45.5 percent shooting.
• Gilwee scored 14 points, knocking down 4-9 (44.4 percent) of her three pointers while adding two rebounds and an assist.
• Delaney Richason finished with 13 points and a season-high three blocks with three rebounds on an efficient 5-9 shooting from the field including 3-4 from beyond the arc.
• The Vermont bench outscored the Wildcat bench 28-4 led by Gonzalez's 15 while Myklebust added eight and first year Andjela Matic contributed five points.
• With tonight's win, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group will donate $100 to King Street Youth Center as part of the Cats Win, Community Wins initiative. Since its inauguration in 2017, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group has donated over $80,000 to local non-profits through the Cats Win, Community Wins initiative.  
• With the 10 three pointers made M&T Bank will be donating $250 to the Vermont Foodbank. With a community bank approach, M&T Bank helps people reach their personal and business goals with banking, mortgage, loan and investment services.

 
WHO'S NEXT
Following today's victory over New Hampshire Vermont will host UMass Lowell at Patrick Gym on Wednesday, January 11 in their annual Catamount Kids Classroom Game. To purchase tickets to the game, you can visit uvmathletics.com/tickets or visit the ticket kiosk on game day. The start time for that game is scheduled for 11 a.m. and it will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Ryan Zimmerman, the voice of Catamounts women's basketball, will be on the call on the radio on WVMT.
 
NATIONAL GIRLS AND WOMEN IN SPORTS DAY
The University of Vermont Women's Basketball team will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day powered by Vermont Mutual on Saturday, February 4th during their game against UAlbany at 12 P.M. On February 4th, girls from the local community with an interest in sports and being involved in this celebration will have the opportunity to become members of the UVM Athletic Staff for the day. Girls between fourth and eighth grade can apply to a wide variety of positions including: Public Address Announcer, Marketing Assistant, Ticket Staff, and many more! Participants will be able to work in the position for one half of the game, the other half they will be able to watch the game with their family. To apply, please visit https://uvmathletics.com/sb_output.aspx?form=126