Vermont 63 UNH 56
Vermont clawed their way back into the conference finals by holding off UNH in the semifinals on Monday night. This season has been Becker and Company's most trying and the most rewarding. To go through the list of obstacles this team has overcome to be where they are is exhausting. Vermont faced just about every kind of adversity over the past year and dug deep to overcome it all. Just one month ago the Cats were coming off a 100-93 loss to fall to 6-5 in conference play. Becker called out his players publicly and things were pretty grim in Catamount country. Fast forward to 7 wins in a row plus a trip to the finals and the Cats have had themselves another great season. This has to be the best and most satisfying (and most difficult) year of Becker's coaching career. This team has come together and is embracing the adversity and using it to make themselves better basketball players. To win an ugly physical game the way Vermont did tonight is a testament as to how far they have come. They would not have won a game like this at the beginning of the conference schedule. At the center of this resurgence has been Ethan O'Day. He has put together a tremendous senior season and put the team on his back against UNH. I have never seen him play with as much energy as he did in the first half. He was a one man defensive machine and looked liked a player who was not going to let his team lose. O'Day finished with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Over his last 5 games he has averaged 14.2 points on 62% shooting from the field and 95% (19-20!!!) from the free throw line. Throw in 7.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game and you have a senior taking over and leading his team on a winning streak. Kurt Steidl also had another strong game with 13 points and 6 rebounds including some key rebounds down the stretch. Ernie Duncan continued his absolutely torrid shooting from three finishing with 11 points on 3-4 shooting from deep. That puts him at 10/13 over the last three games. Duncan's season percentage sits at 44% which is currently tied for the second highest single season percentage in the history of Vermont basketball. Dre Wills actually led the team in rebounding with 8 boards and had a positive impact on the game despite being held scoreless. Drew Urquhart also put together a strong game off the bench scoring 6 points and blocking 3 shots. Just a tremendous end of the season run by this group and now they are ready to go to the championship game and play loose. Vermont got over the semifinals hump and the "its tough to beat a team three times" curse. Now they can go down and try to pull the upset on the road. All the pressure is on Stony Brook and it should be a tremendous game in a great atmosphere.
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