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Rugg Powers Cats Past Binghamton in Men's Basketball 73-53
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- Created on Friday, 13 January 2012 02:49
- Written by George Commo
Former Burlington High star scores a career-high 18 points
Courtesy Vermont Sports Information
BURLINGTON – Sophomore Clancy Rugg scored a career-high 18 points to lead the Vermont men's basketball team to a 73-53 victory over visiting Binghamton on Thursday night in America East play. The win was the third straight for the Catamounts, who improve to 9-9 overall and 3-1 in conference action.
Rugg surpassed his previous high of eight points after shooting 6-for-9 from the floor in only 19 minutes of play. The Catamounts shot 52.8 percent as a team, as they led start to finish. Senior Matt Glass and freshman Four McGlynn each added 12 points for Vermont.
“I am really happy with that win, another great team effort,” said Vermont head coach John Becker. “It was fun out there watching the Clancy Rugg show, which was great to see and I am very happy for Clancy. He has been playing well all year and it kind of came all together for him tonight. I thought we were good defensively in the first half and got out and ran a little bit and got some easy buckets. To get back to .500 and 3-1 in the league, we can all exhale now and keep pushing on.”
Vermont led right from the start, as it scored the first five points of the game and jumped out to an early 13-5 advantage behind six points from junior Ben Crenca. The Catamounts came out making 10 of their first 16 attempts, as a layup from sophomore Sandro Carissimo stretched the lead to 24-9 with 11:02 left in the half.
The Vermont defense held Binghamton (0-16, 0-4 America East) without a field goal for nearly seven minutes, as the Catamounts would lead by as many as 18 in the frame at 33-15. McGlynn wrapped up the scoring with a layup with one second left to send the Cats into halftime with a 35-19 lead. Vermont shot 51.7 percent from the floor in the half, as McGlynn led the Cats with eight at the break.
After going only 6-for-21 from the floor in the first half, Binghamton started the second by making its first five attempts. An 11-3 Bearcat run cut Vermont's lead to 38-30 just 2:36 into the second frame. The Catamounts pushed their lead back to 16, but an 8-1 run by Binghamton got it within nine at 51-42 with 10:12 remaining.
Vermont responded with an 11-0 spurt over the next 3:04, as Glass netted seven of the 11 to push it back to 62-42. The Catamounts shot 54.2 percent from the floor in the second half on their way to victory.
Rugg's has now either set or matched his career-best for scoring in each of the last four games, as he is averaging 10 points per contest over that stretch.
Sophomore Brian Voelkel added a game-high seven assists and five rebounds, while classmate Luke Apfeld pulled down seven rebounds off the bench. Vermont outscored Binghamton 40-14 in the paint and had a 41-15 bench scoring edge. Ben Dickinson led Binghamton with 18 points, while Robert Mansell added 15.
Vermont returns to action on Saturday when it travels to face New Hampshire starting at 3 p.m.
NOTES: Thursday marked Vermont's third straight win, all of which have been by double figures … UVM has now defeated Binghamton five straight times and holds a 19-6 edge in the all-time series … The 20-point margin of victory was the largest of the season for the Cats … 10 or more Catamounts have now scored in each of the last three games, as 11 of the 12 to play on Thursday scored … Thursday was the first of four home contests for Vermont in its next six games … Rugg and Binghamton's Dickinson were named the America East Players of the Game.
