Courtesy Vermont Sports Information
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Despite 19 points from Kurt Steidl and three other Catamounts in double figures, the Vermont men’s basketball team couldn’t outgun sharp-shooting St. Bonaventure and fell to the Bonnies in non-conference action Tuesday night, 80-68. With the loss, Vermont’s second straight, the Catamounts fall to 4-6 while the Bonnies move to 6-2.
Steidl had his best shooting game of the season connecting on seven-of-nine from the field including five-of-seven from downtown. His 19 points tie a career-high which was set in his freshman season against Sanoma St. Trae Bell-Haynes had 13 points and six assists while Drew Urquhart played his best game of the season chipping in nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Jaylen Adams led St. Bonaventure with a career-high 28 points including seven 3-pointers as well as seven assists. Dion Wright also finished with 16 points and seven rebounds for the Bonnies.
This was the first all-time meeting between Vermont and St. Bonaventure and the Catamounts are now 0-6 against teams from the Atlantic-10 under Cioffi Endowed Men’s Basketball Coach John Becker.
Vermont got off to a slow start for the second straight game but hung around during the first half. It was 15-5 Bonnies before back-to-back buckets from Trae Bell-Haynes and Dre Wills cut the lead to five at the 12:27 mark. Bona got the lead to nine just three minutes later but two straight thee-pointers from Cam Ward (five points) and Steidl and another layup from Darren Payen (10 points) got the Cats to within two, 20-18.
Jaylen Adams then caught fire for the home team as he buried four 3-pointers in the first half including one from beyond NBA range, which gave the Bonnies a 33-23 lead.
It was 41-29 with under four minutes left in the first half but the Catamounts went on an 8-2 spurt to cut the lead to six at the break. Urquhart got fouled on an awkward jumper with 0.1 seconds on the clock and knocked down both free throws to give UVM some momentum going into the locker room.
Vermont started the second half on another 8-2 run to tie the game at 45. Bell-Haynes and Steidl sandwiched a pair of triples around a Dre Wills (10 points) layup to force a Bonnie timeout just 90 seconds into the half.
From there, however, it was all St. Bonaventure and Adams was at the controls. He drilled a three out of the timeout, followed by another three from Nelson Kaputo to put St. Bonaventure up by six once again. The lead ballooned to ten at the 11:00 mark before Bell-Haynes made one-of-two at the line to cut the lead to seven, 62-55.
Adams answered right back with another trifecta and Vermont wouldn’t get any closer than 12 the rest of the way.
The Catamounts get a much-needed break following its eighth game away from Burlington and won’t be in action again until Dec. 16 when the University of California at Santa Barbara Gauchos make the cross-country trip to Patrick Gym. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and can be seen on AmericaEast.TV as well as heard on ESPN 101.3 FM