Vermont 69 Hartford 68
Ryan Davis was left wide open on the final possession and converted a lay in to lift the Catamounts to their 9 straight victory. The final play capped off another strong performance by Davis. With Lamb in foul trouble Davis was able to man the middle and keep the Vermont offense rolling. He fished with 16 points and 7 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards. That gives him 13 offensive boards over the last three games. He has blossomed into the best true big man in the conference over these last few games and gives Vermont a different dimension on offense. Everett Duncan is back in a big way. He scorched the nets scoring 18 points on 7-10 shooting including 4-7 from three. Finally shooting with confidence he has looked like the Everett of old over these last two games. Stef Smith kept the Cats in the game in the first half with his own hot shooting performance. Smith chipped in 15 points including 3-6 from three. Ben Shungu had an up and down game but gutted it out and finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Isaiah Powell played over 20 minutes for the second consecutive game and did a great job defensively with Lamb out in the first half. Both teams struggled with execution down the stretch and it looked like a miscue was going to be the difference in the game. That turned out to be true as Ryan Davis' defender left him completely alone on the final possession. That was a good tough road win and it was good to play a close game after a string of games playing with big leads. Now Vermont has a two game homestand before the big road game against Stony Brook.
Excellent win but all wins are excellent. However, we almost let this one slip away with turnovers in the final minutes. We tried to force it to Anthony or he tried to dribble through triple coverage. I understand that we want to get it to our go to guy, but when he's getting so much defensive attention, another plan is in order. (Spreading it and letting Benny take it is one of those plans, and Benny answers the bell.) Credit to the Cats for bending but not breaking. Heartbreaker for Hartford and Gal. They were oh so close. Vermont cannot take any team lightly. UNH upset Stony. I did not see that coming. Cannot sleep on UNH or anyone for that matter. Thank you for the coverage.
ReplyDeleteEllison did an excellent job defensively on Lamb in both games. UNH is a completely different team at home. Stony Brook has really struggled to shoot the ball since they beat Vermont in the opener. Any team can beat anyone on any given night. That is the beauty of conference play.
DeleteNow that Everett is back in form and Davis is living up to his expectations it makes UVM a much better less Anthony dependent team. They do seem to struggle getting to the rim sometimes. Is it not moving without the ball or zone defense? Also do you expect Powell to become a much better scorer? The defense and rebounding are there.
DeleteTeams have really packed their defense in due to Vermont’s struggles from deep. That is what is making it hard to get to the rim. Out of high school I did think Powell could be a good scorer. I don’t know anymore. His offensive game is very choppy. Kind of a tweener. Not a good enough shooter to score consistently from the outside, not enough ball handling to consistently get to the rim. The other pieces of his game are coming along and that might keep him an effective rotational player.
DeletePowell is best when he's in the paint, closer to the rim. He's not an outside shooter, at least not right now. This season, he's playing within himself, the offense, which is good. Do what you can do... Davis' last second shot was tougher than it looked, as are most things...Ellison is an all-conference player, has the talent to compete for A East POY... Olaniyi, who looked all world in our first meeting, went scoreless against UNH, only played 11 minutes. Something's going on there.
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