Articles
New Hampshire Outlasts Vermont in Overtime in Women's Basketball
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- Created on Sunday, 15 January 2012 04:33
- Written by George Commo
UNH Outscores Catamounts 14-8 in OT ... Beats UVM 69-63
Courtesy Vermont Sports Informatinon
BURLINGTON – Denise Beliveau scored seven of her 15 points in overtime as the New Hampshire Wildcats outlasted Vermont, 69-63, in America East women's basketball at Patrick Gymnasium.
New Hampshire improves to 9-7 overall and 2-2 in America East. Vermont drops to 8-10 on the year and 2-3 in league play.
“As much as this loss hurts this was a great learning experience for some of our younger players. Hopefully we won't make the same mistakes again and those same letdowns,” said Vermont head coach Lori Gear McBride.
“I thought we did a good job with the physicality of the game, but the battle of the boards was the difference. We can't dwell on our missed shots, we've got to get the rebounds. That's what New Hampshire did. They didn't score on their first shot, but they got the rebounds and put backs and those were the scores we needed but didn't get,” continued Gear McBride.
Vermont led, 55-53, with 17 seconds left in regulation, but UNH forced the Catamounts into a turnover. Kelsey Hogan missed a layup with eight seconds left, but Beliveau got the rebound and was fouled. She stepped to the line and sank both free throws to tie the game up 55-55 with seven seconds remaining.
The Catamounts got the ball down the length of the court, but Lauren Wheeler's 3-point attempt from the left corner hit the front rim and the game went to overtime.
UNH went on an 11-0 run to start the overtime and held a 65-55 lead with 32 seconds left in the extra session. Vermont cut the lead to three on a 3-pointer by Kayla Burchill with 10 seconds remaining, but UNH made 3-of-4 free throws to seal the victory.
Vermont took a 7-2 lead and New Hampshire went 0-for-8 from the field to start the game.
A layup by Lauren Buschmann gave UVM a six-point lead, 19-13, with 8:44 left in the half. New Hampshire answered with a 14-4 run, ignited by six straight points from Cari Reed, over the final 6:49 of the half to take a 27-23 lead.
Sam Simononis ended the Wildcats' run with a 3-pointer just before the halftime horn to bring Vermont within one, 27-26 at the break.
New Hampshire scored the first four points of the second half to extend its lead to five, 31-26. Shumpert brought UVM back to one, 32-31, with back-to-back 3-pointers at the 17:08 mark. The Wildcats pushed back out in front by seven behind an 8-0 run and six straight points from Morgan Frame.
The Wildcats maintained the seven-point margin until the 7:58 mark when Vermont put together a 16-6 rally over the next six minutes, including 10 points from Buschmann, to give UVM a three-point advantage with 1:57 remaining in the game. But the Wildcats managed to come back and force the overtime period.
Buschmann posted her seventh double-double of the season, finishing with a game-high 19 points and 12 rebounds. Shumpert matched her career-high for the second straight game, pouring in 17 points off the bench. Junior Shanai Heber grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds. The last Catamount to grab 15 or more rebounds in a game was Courtnay Pilypaitis with 17 versus Albany (Jan. 10, 2010).
Frame added a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds to match Beliveau's effort for the Wildcats. Reed added 13 points to round out the leading scorers for New Hampshire.
Vermont has a quick turnaround, returning to action on Monday (Jan. 17) at Maine. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Alfond Arena. The game can be heard on WVMT-620 AM and on the Internet at SportsJuice.com. Live video is also available via the Maine Athletics website at GoBlackBears.com.
NOTES: This is the second time in three games Vermont and New Hampshire have played in overtime … The first meeting between the two schools last year was a 63-59 overtime win for the Wildcats in Durham … UNH earned its first victory at Patrick Gym in 13 years, the Wildcats last win in Burlington was Dec. 5, 1999 (68-60) … Lauren Buschmann has reached double digits 15 of 18 games this season and eight straight … New Hampshire, which is the top free throw shooting team in the league (72.7%), went 24-for-29 from the foul line in the game … Vermont was 8-for-11 from the stripe … America East Players of the Game were: Lauren Buschmann (UVM)/Morgan Frame (UNH).
