Courtesy: Vermont Athletic Communications
GREEN BAY, Wis. ? Juniors Maurice Joseph and Marqus Blakely combined to score
45 points and senior Mike Trimboli hit a big three late
to lead the Vermont men’s basketball team to a 76-72 victory over Green Bay in
the College Basketball Invitational First Round on Wednesday night. The
Catamounts improve to 24-8 overall on the season with the win.
Joseph scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Catamounts, while Blakely
earned his 27th career double-double with 22 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Trimboli also reached double figures for Vermont with 17.
“I thought that
was a great win for our team. We got matched up with the team with the highest
RPI in this tournament and we were playing them on their home court where they
had won 13 of 14 this season, so this was a tough match-up for us. I thought our
defense was tremendous. We fought some foul trouble and made some big shots when
we had to,” said Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan.
Vermont led 71-70
after a tip-in from Blakely with exactly a minute to go and Green Bay’s Troy
Cotton missed the front end of a one-and-one on the other end. With the shot
clock running down on the next possession Trimboli pulled up from the top of the
key and gave the Cats a little breathing room with a three.
UWGB hit two
free throws with 5.9 second left to cut it to two at 74-72, but Trimboli put the
game out of reach with a pair from the line with 4.5 ticks on the clock.
Vermont carried a 42-34 edge into the half after shooting a blistering
53.2 percent from the floor. Blakely and Joseph combined to score 26 of the 42,
as Blakely went a perfect 7-for-7 from the field in the opening 20 minutes of
play. Leading 32-30, the Catamounts used a 10-2 run to lead by as many as 10 in
the frame, at 42-32.
The Phoenix (22-11) opened the second half with a
17-8 spurt to take a 51-50 advantage with 13:48 left in the contest. Green Bay
would lead until 2:33 to go when Blakely had a put back that made it 69-68
Vermont.
Cotton led Green Bay with 17, while Rahmon Fletcher added 16 and
Mike Schachtner chipped in with 14 points. Vermont held a 38-34 rebounding
margin and held the Phoenix to shoot only 28.6 percent from three, after it
entered the contest with the fourth-highest three-point shooting percentage in
the nation (41.5).
Vermont advances to the quarterfinals on Monday,
where it will play Oregon State, who defeated Houston 49-45 on Thursday night.