Vermont at Albany 1/25/17

Vermont 60 Albany 49

Finally.

Vermont used their best defensive effort of the season to win on the road at Albany. It is no secret that Albany has held a hex over Vermont for some time now with the Cats last win before tonight coming in 2014. Getting over that hump and getting this win is huge. Most of these rivalry games turn into a physical defensive battle and this game was no different. Both teams struggled to make shots and nothing came easy. Vermont's defense was unbelievable. They held Albany to 30% shooting from the field. In conference play Albany leads the conference at 54%. They completely took Albany out of their game and challenged everything at the rim. The Cats depth allows them to challenge shots hard because foul trouble is less of a concern. Anthony Lamb has turned a corner on the defensive side of the ball. He was held out of most of the first half due to foul trouble but returned for the second half and dominated underneath the hoop. He finished with 4 blocks including two where he didn't leave the floor and basically grabbed the ball out of the shooters hand. He also led the team with 6 rebounds and brought the physicality and toughness underneath that is needed to win against Albany. By my count Albany made 2 shots outside of 15 feet from the basket due to some very hard hedging by the Vermont defense. Another great team effort on the defensive side of the ball. Albany played good defense as well and Vermont struggled to shoot the ball from three finishing 3-18. Albany dares you to shoot threes and does a nice job making the slightly deep three seem oh so enticing. Trae Bell-Haynes led the way offensively for Vermont scoring 18 points and now sits just 4 points away from 1,000 for his career. He is coming up with big shot after big shot down the stretch of games this year. Other than Bell-Haynes, consistent offense was hard to come by but Kurt Steidl continues to knock down perimeter shots in an efficient fashion. The only concerning blemish during the 9 game win streak is Vermont's continued struggles from the free throw line. Vermont fished 13-20 (65%) tonight and needs to improve that percentage going forward.  Revenge tour part two is complete and part three comes up on Saturday night at Stony Brook. The Seawolves are nipping at the Cats heels and Vermont will be looking to put away any remaining doubt about who the team to beat is in the America East.