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Cats Grind Out 50-47 Win Over Albany in Men's Hoops

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Created on Thursday, 16 February 2012 04:29
Written by George Commo

Ninth straight win improves Cats to 18-10 overall and 12-2 in America East

 

Courtesy Vermont Sports Information

ALBANY, N.Y.  – Sophomore Sandro Carissimo hit a pair of free throws with nine seconds remaining to help the Vermont men's basketball team earn a tough 50-47 victory at Albany on Wednesday night. The win is the ninth straight for the Catamounts as they improve to 18-10 overall and move into first place in the America East standings with a 12-2 mark.

Vermont led 48-44 after a dunk by sophomore Luke Apfeld with 21 seconds to go, but Albany's Jacob Iati hit a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game with 16 seconds on the clock. Carissimo was fouled and made both to stretch it back to a three-point lead and Iati's last second attempt at a 3-pointer from the corner missed, as the Cats held on for the win.

Junior Brendan Bald was the only Catamount to reach double figures with 10 points, while Carissimo and senior Matt Glass added nine each. Sophomore Brian Voelkel grabbed 14 rebounds to go with a team-high four assists. The 47 points are the fewest that the Catamounts have given up this season and they have now held their last two opponents under 50 points. The Great Danes came into the game leading the league in scoring, averaging 73.8 points a contest.

“That was a hard-fought win here tonight on the road at Albany,” said Vermont head coach John Becker. “I thought that Albany did a great job at controlling the tempo of that game. They did a great job executing their game plan and fortunately we were able to make enough plays down the stretch to pull it out. We showed a little bit of our youth today, but I am happy that we found a way to win against a tough Albany team tonight.”

Albany (16-13, 8-7 America East) opened the contest with an early 7-3 lead, before Vermont responded with a 15-3 run to take an 18-10 advantage after a layup from senior Pat Bergmann with 8:21 left in the frame. After starting only 1-for-5 from the floor, the Catamounts made eight of their next 10 attempts.

A layup from Glass gave UVM its biggest lead of the stanza at 24-15 with 2:27 remaining, but Albany scored the final five points of the half as Vermont took a 24-20 lead into the break. Bald paced Vermont at the intermission with seven points, as seven different Catamounts scored.

In a second half that saw two ties and six lead changes, a layup from Albany's Mike Black put the visitors up 32-30 with 10:40 to go. Vermont trailed 37-36 with 6:01 left, but used a 10-0 run and looked to be in control. UVM ended the push on back-to-back 3-pointers from Carissimo and Glass, while Apfeld added a layup that made it 46-37 with 37 seconds left.

The Great Danes responded with the next seven straight points on the next two possessions as Black converted a four-point play and Iati added a 3-pointer to make it 46-44 Vermont. Albany scored 10 points over the final 37 seconds after netting only 37 in the first 39:23.

Carissimo added a game-high three steals and three assists, while Bergmann went 3-for-3 off the bench to add eight points. Vermont shot 43.5 percent from the floor, while holding Albany to 36.2 percent.

Black led Albany with 16 points, while Jayson Guerrier added 14. Blake Metcalf pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds.

Vermont returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Niagara at a special 2 p.m. start time as part of the ESPN BracketBusters series. The Cats are encouraging fans to wear gold to the game. Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at www.UVMathletics.com. Live video of the game is available for free via CatamounTV on www.UVMathletics.com.


NOTES: Vermont has won 12 of its last 13 overall and with the victory now has the eighth-longest active winning streak in the nation … The Catamounts have won seven of the last eight against the Great Danes … UVM has won 16 of its last 20 against teams from the state of New York … The Cats have earned season sweeps over Boston U, Hartford, Maine and now Albany … Vermont has only given up an average of 48 points a game over its last two and held both Stony Brook and Albany under 37 percent shooting … There was a total of 27 lead changes in the two match ups this season … Voelkel reached double figures in rebounds for an eighth time this season and 24th of his career … Vermont is 8-2 on TV this year, as Wednesday's game was televised on Time Warner Cable Sports … The Catamounts won the first meeting of the season 73-69 in Burlington on January 19 … The Cats have won 25 of their last 30 games in the month of February … Carissimo and Albany's Black were named the America East Players of the Game.