Courtesy Vermont Sports Information
RICHMOND, Va. — The UVM men’s basketball team made history on Wednesday night with its first true road victory over an Atlantic 10 opponent since Feb. 26, 1976. Vermont beat Richmond 71-65 and improved to 6-1 on the year. The Spiders fell to 1-6 with the loss.
The 6-1 start is UVM’s best start under head coach John Becker and matches the 2010-11 Cats for the best mark in program history through the first seven games. The Green and Gold reached the win column after shooting a season-high 53.1% (26-for-49) from the floor.
Ernie Duncan found his stroke with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. The redshirt junior also gathered five rebounds and dished out four assists.Anthony Lamb followed with 14 points and six rebounds. Trae Bell-Haynes rounded out three Catamounts in double figures with 10 points and dealt a game-high six assists.
Richmond had five players reach double figures, led by a Nick Sherod’s team-high 14 points. Grant Golden and Jacob Gilyard added 13 points apiece and combined for seven assists. De’Mont Buckingham tallied an even dozen in the scoring column with four rebounds. Khwan Fore was the fifth Spider to record double digits with 11 points and seven rebounds.
The first half was tightly contested for most of the period until the final four minutes. UVM held a slim 24-23 lead but mounted a 6-0 run in a minute and a half span. After shooting 54.2% in the half, the Cats went into the locker room with a 32-27 advantage.
The Spiders opened the second half with back-to-back long balls from Sherod and cut the deficit to 34-33. Later in the half, Cam Ward drained a big three-pointer and gave the Green and Gold a 50-43 lead with 13 minutes left to play.
Once again, Richmond went on a run of its own and got back into the game with seven unanswered points. Sheron had a chance to give the Spiders their first lead since the 17:19 mark of the first half, but missed a pair at the charity stripe. Vermont responded on the other end of the floor when Duncan found nothing by nylon on a long-distance attempt and boosted UVM’s lead to 58-54 with five and a half minutes left in the contest.
The Cats put the game away at the foul line by making all four attempts in the final seconds.
Vermont will visit Patriot League preseason favorite Bucknell on Saturday (Dec. 2). The opening tip is set for 7 p.m. Fans can watch the contest on the Patriot League Network. All Vermont regular season games can be heard on 101.3 ESPN FM and online at 1013ESPN.com with Sam Hyman on the call.