Vermont at Binghamton 1/21/16

Vermont 61 Binghamton 52

I don't care how poor of a team Binghamton has, winning down in Vestal for the Cats is a big game. Year after year the Bearcats trip up Vermont on the road. The memory of the winless Bearcats beating the Cats a few years back still gives me nightmares. This game was important for Vermont and they responded with a good performance. Playing a poor offensive team like Binghamton is a nice way to work some kinks out on defense. The defense looked better and the team for most of the game looked more cohesive. There were still frustrating stretches of too many turnovers and poor rotations on defense, but  the overall effort was better. Offensively Vermont was able to get more open shots on the perimeter and used their defense to force turnovers and get shots in transition. When a team is struggling one of the leaders needs to step up and Kurt Steidl responded with a great game. Steidl shot 3-5 from three and scored 16 points to lead Vermont. He also added 6 rebounds and 4 steals. Steidl is the type of player that can take control and be the steady leader on this team. Dre Wills returning is a huge boost for Vermont. He looked very good against UMass Lowell and came up big for the Cats against Binghamton. He is one of those players who steps up when the team needs him. When Binghamton was making a run at the end of the game Wills came up with two key steals that turned the entire momentum back to Vermont. He finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals in his typical stat stuffing fashion. Vermont got nice contributions across the board and would have put the game away far earlier if they were not so dreadful at the line. At one point they were 1-10 from the line and finished a terrible 7-17. Just awful. Now it is time to go back home which is suddenly the source of all the Cats problems. The next game is important to show that Vermont can begin to play with some consistency.