Vermont at Marist 11/16/16

Vermont 76 Marist 72

Vermont held off a hard charging Marist team and hung on for a tough win on the road. Marist looked very poor to start out the game and Vermont jumped out to a big lead. The Red Foxes began to chip away and started to speed Vermont up on offense. This forced the Cats into too many turnovers and as a result Marist came all the way back and took the lead. Vermont executed down the stretch and was able to pull out the victory. There is a lot to unpack from this game. First, Payton Henson can really put the ball in the hoop. He led the Cats in scoring for the second game in a row finishing with 18 points. His rebounding has also been impressive as he finished with 8 boards to lead the Cats. Anthony Lamb bounced back with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Henson and Lamb give Vermont a dimension that they have never had: two post players who score inside, outside, and can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim. Trae Bell-Haynes fell one point short of a double double, finishing with 9 points and 10 assists. Dre Wills continued his strong start with 11 points and Kurt Steidl righted the ship with 10 points. Vermont got to the rim relentlessly and shot 53% from the field. Now on to the not so pretty numbers. First off Vermont committed 18 turnovers and most of them were bad turnovers on passes at the top of the key. Several times Vermont players turned to swing the ball and passed it directly to a Marist player. Those are flat out inexcusable. Henson finished with 6 turnovers and many of them were careless or sloppy. As the post play looks good for the Cats, the perimeter play is struggling. The three point shooting has been poor and opposing teams are shooting very well from three. Through the three games Vermont sits at 33% (17-51) from three and opponents are 43% (29-67). That is a significant and concerning disparity. Often when Vermont struggled in games last year it was due to that exact difficulty. Also, as was a struggle at the beginning of last year the defensive rotations are atrocious. The team at large is struggling mightily to grasp the defensive rotations and it has resulted in Becker struggling to find working lineups. So far this season Becker's substitutions and lineups are making the statement "play D or sit". That is part of the reason Wills has played so many minutes. The rotations will get better as they did last year but they certainly are not there yet. It was great to get the win but it was heart wrenching game to watch. It was good for Vermont to get some practice in a close, hard fought game and be forced to make tough plays down the stretch. Now it is time for the home opener. Certainly not the most exciting home opener but one that I wouldn't miss.