Vermont 67 Hartford 60
Vermont fought through another slow start and shot the lights out in the second half to win on the road. Even though there have been plenty of lopsided wins against Hartford, they always make it a physical game. Hartford plays hard and plays a scrappy style of basketball. Their mission is to disrupt what you do on offense and hope that they can make enough shots to win. Playing them is rarely pretty but anytime Vermont can come out with a win, they have done their job. It was a very balanced effort and the pieces are really coming together for the Cats. With the emergence of Steidl and O'Day, Vermont has several offense options in whatever lineup they put on the floor. This is allowing Becker to adjust to whatever the opposing defense is attempting to do. Another interesting point from the game is that Hector Harold was actually being used as a defensive substitution toward the end of the game. Definitely demonstrates how far he has come. After the game, Voelkel is seven assists away from becoming the all time assists leader at UVM and Carissimo is six points shy of 1,000. Both of those marks are likely to be reached this week.
It is early in the season and much can change in the last eight conference games, but the game against Albany at this moment is extremely important. If Vermont can win tonight they will be in the drivers seat for the regular season championship and the number one seed. Vermont has already played the more difficult road games and they have the home game against Stony Brook in the second to last game of the season. Albany is always a difficult place to play and the Cats offense never seems to get going when they play there. The blowout victory in early January means little as the Great Danes are healthy and playing their best basketball of the season. Coming off a convincing victory over Stony Brook, Albany will be looking to get back into a race for the number two seed in the tourney. The keys to the game will be to not come out flat and get behind early. Many of the Cats losses this year have come because they dug themselves too big of a hole in the first half. Another key will be to get tough on the boards. Albany likes to get physical and pound teams on the boards. If Vermont can maintain the physicality they displayed in the first meeting they will be able to stay in the game. It should be a tough battle and will test the mettle of both teams.
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