Vermont 79 New Hampshire 44
On Wednesday night Vermont made another statement to the conference that they are the team to beat right now. Vermont absolutely manhandled New Hampshire in their own gym and won their 7th consecutive game. Now with that said, New Hampshire is not a good team. They at one point this season lost 13 games in a row and struggle to get to 50 points night in and night out. So normally this game would just be another blowout against a bad team. However, New Hampshire had just taken Hartford down to the wire and the game before that beat Stony Brook on their home floor. Again, New Hampshire beat Stony Brook at Pritchard gymnasium, the most significant home court advantage in the league. So in summation New Hampshire was playing their best basketball of the season and demonstrated they could play with the top teams in the league. By running them out of their own gym, Vermont again asserted themselves as a team that will impose their will no matter the opponent. As far as individual take aways from the game, Clancy Rugg looked good for the second consecutive game. He is getting back to the free throw line and it looks like he is getting his confidence back. Luke Apfeld played some great minutes as well and knocked down several beautiful jumpers. Hats off to Candon Rusin for scoring the 1,000th point of his career. Rusin is playing the best basketball of his career and looks like a completely different player since beginning the conference schedule. He is a big reason the Cats are on such a hot streak. In the random stats file, since scoring 17 points against Stony Brook, Hector Harold has played in every game during the 7 game win streak. He has shot 0-23 from the field in that time period. I repeat he has not hit a shot from the field in 7 games. Ouch. Every time he shoots you can tell he is just praying for it to go in. It is hard to watch him look so discouraged out there, especially when you have seen the moments where he could be an impact player. I hope he is able to break out soon.
Hartford comes to town on Sunday in a match up of the two hottest teams in the conference. Vermont has won 7 straight and 14 of 15 overall. Hartford comes in with a 4 game win streak. Last year Hartford came to Patrick gym and beat Vermont on a last second three by Nate Sikma. Hartford is always a dangerous team because of their three point shooting and relentless physical defensive style. The games are never pretty and often frustrating. This year Hartford has been a little more consistent and maybe now that the bulk of their players are upperclassmen, they are becoming a more dangerous team. The big advantage for Vermont is that Hartford is far and away the worst rebounding team in the conference. In the games where the Cats have had success against Hartford, it is when they dominated both the offensive and defensive glass. I would imagine that these seniors would like to erase the memory of the loss last year and make another statement leading into the senior night showdown with Stony Brook. This could be a "trap" game but the seniors have something to prove against Hartford. If they can hold serve at home on Sunday, it sets up a dream match up on Thursday night with Stony Brook. Not only can Vermont avenge their only loss up to this point in conference play, they can beat their biggest rival, the seniors can finish off their regular season careers at Patrick with a big win, and oh yeah, clinch the America East regular season title. If that isn't enough to get you pumped for a game, you should probably check your pulse.
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