Courtesy: Vermont Athletic Communications
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Calvin Haynes hit a baseline floater with 6.1 seconds left in overtime to lift Oregon State to a 71-70 victory over the Vermont men's basketball team on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational. Junior Marqus Blakely (Metuchen, N.J.) led the Cats with 17 points and seven rebounds as they end the season with a record of 24-9.
Senior Mike Trimboli (Norwalk, Conn.) ended with 15 points and five assists, as he also topped the 2,000-point plateau for his career with a jumper with 6:17 left in the first half. Sophomore Joey Accaoui (Lincoln, R.I.) added 12 off the bench, with 10 coming before halftime.
Trailing 69-67, Trimboli hit a three from the corner with 19 seconds left for the Cats' first points of the extra session. After a time out, Oregon State (15-17) brought the ball up the court and Haynes drove and took a fade away jumper from the baseline that just made it over the outstretched arm of Blakely to give OSU the lead.
Vermont pushed the ball up the court and junior Nick Vier (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) found senior Colin McIntosh (Milton, Mass.), who had a good look from the foul line, but his attempt bounced off the rim twice before falling off.
"It was a tough loss for us tonight. I thought it was a pretty good game, but we relied a lot on making three's because they did a great job trying to take Blakely out of the game. I thought we got a good look on the last play with McIntosh, but it just didn't go in. I feel bad for our seniors, but I want to give Oregon State a lot of credit," said Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan.
In a first half that saw both teams hot from the floor, the Catamounts carried a 38-36 lead into intermission. Oregon State jumped out to a 10-2 lead to start the game, but Vermont used the three to counter as five of its first seven makes came from beyond the arc. Accaoui gave the Cats a boost off the bench with 10 points in the opening half on 4-for-5 shooting. Vermont shot 62.5 percent in the frame, while OSU was not far behind by hitting 58.3 percent of its attempts.
Leading 45-44, Vermont used a 9-3 run to extend its lead to as many as seven at 54-47 with 10:13 to go in the contest. Oregon State would answer with an 8-0 spurt, capped off by a bucket from Haynes to put the Beavers back on top. Over the final 7:26 of play there were six lead changes and four ties.
Haynes finished with a game-high 19 for Oregon State, while Roeland Schaftenaar added a double-double with 14 and 10 rebounds. The Beavers finished the game shooting 51.9 percent from the floor.
Blakely was 7-for-9 for the game and also added four steals and two blocks. Trimboli became only the fourth player in team history to top 2,000 points, as he finished his career with 2,008. He and McIntosh each matched Martin Klimes '07 for the most games played all-time in Catamount history on Monday night, as the duo appeared in 126 contests during their career.
"Trimboli has had a great career and McIntosh really picked it up his senior year. Those are two guys we are going to miss and hopefully we can bounce back next year," added Lonergan.