Vermont at UMBC 2/20/16

Vermont 99 UMBC 54

Yowza!!!

In their most dominant effort of the year Vermont took care of business in Baltimore. Coach Becker took a timeout a minute and a half into the game after Vermont allowed two easy buckets. Whatever he said in that time out should be bottled up and repeated for the rest of the season as the Cats were one hundred percent unstoppable after that. The defense is really starting to come around and guys are hustling and playing their hearts out. Even when the Cats were struggling the offense was coming together and tonight it was a well oiled machine. Cam Ward turned in his second consecutive great performance (sorry about no Binghamton game write up, life happens). Ward had a perfect shooting day finishing 7-7 from the field, 6-6 from three, and 4-4 from the free throw line. All that adds up to a career high 24 points. It is great to see him start hitting from three again. The Bench mob was great for the second straight game as they accounted for 55 of the 99 points. Dre Wills had a monster stat stuffing game, finishing with 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists off the bench. Ethan O'Day scored 13 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. Ernie Duncan has officially broken out of his slump finishing with 11 points on 3-4 from three. That puts him in double figures for the 5th straight game during which time he is shooting 16-33(48%) from three. The Cats finally look motivated and passionate on the court and look to be coming together. They face a stiff test on Wednesday when New Hampshire comes to town. The senior night game is a very emotional atmosphere and New Hampshire is going to be motivated to avenge their worst loss of the conference season. For all the difficulties that Vermont has faced this year, they are still going to have a home playoff game and hopefully go on the road in the semifinals with a chance to pull an upset. That was ultimately what the consensus preseason prediction was. The way that Vermont has got to this point has been different and trying at times, but to put things in perspective they are about where most people thought they would be. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say and if Vermont can take care of business on Wednesday they will be set up to go to Stony Brook in the finale with nothing to lose. Here is their chance to continue the positive momentum and finish the season strong.