New Hampshire used timely shooting to beat Vermont for the first time since 2015. The Cats looked sluggish from the start and fell victim to the classic trap game on the road. The Wildcats scorched the nets in the first half, making tough shot after tough shot. Vermont was able to tighten things up on defense in the second half but never got the offense going and UNH made big shots down the stretch. It was tough to watch Vermont slide back into a stagnant offense with too much isolation after building so much positive momentum over the past month. The Cats only managed 5 assists against 8 turnovers and were repeatedly outmuscled by UNH. The biggest takeaway from this game is how important TJ Hurley is to this team. With Hurley on the sidelines nursing an injury, Vermont struggled to spread the floor. The Cats need his shooting in the lineup. After managing to battle on the boards for much of the season despite their size disadvantage, the last two games have highlighted that potential weakness. Over the last two games Vermont is getting outworked on the boards with too many guys turning and watching instead of boxing out. They made up for it against Bryant by forcing turnovers but UNH has always been great at taking care of the ball and did a nice job limiting mistakes. I have to give a lot of credit to the Wildcats as they came out and played a very good game, making shots when they needed to and taking away what the Cats wanted to do on offense.
Robin Duncan continued his strong season with 15 points and 8 rebounds. He continues to impress with his improvement in his offensive impact and scrapped and scraped trying to get Vermont back into the game. Finn Sullivan finally broke out of his slump with a great stretch in the second half. He finished with 14 points but got himself in foul trouble with some silly reaches. That had a huge impact when Vermont was trying to claw ahead down the stretch. Aaron Deloney finished with 13 points but made several crucial mistakes down the stretch. Deloney missed two front ends of one and ones and then threw a pass into the bench on a crucial possession where Vermont had a chance to take the lead. Very uncharacteristic mistakes for Deloney who has now had tough nights in two out of the three conference games. Ileri Ayo-Faleye was another bright spot for Vermont finishing with 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block. He played well in the second half and had some crucial plays grabbing rebounds and creating havoc on defense.
Sports fandom has some high and lows and the last two games are perfect examples. Serves as a good reminder to stay level headed and take it one game at a time. No time to dwell on the tough loss as Vermont now heads to UMass Lowell on Wednesday in what will be another very difficult game on the road against the conference leader. The early conference results so far suggest that every game is going to be a battle and it might take a while to get a clear idea of the conference pecking order.
I have to disagree on this one. This supposed trap game is 99% a result of coaching. JB and company should have seen the potential for a let down. You highlight ileri’ s impact and yet he wasn’t in the game for almost the entire first half while the starters looked terribly sluggish and almost sleep walking. He has if only one thing shown to be high energy. You can’t let your team fall behind by 15 on the road to an inferior team and not try to jolt the team. I think inserting smith and ileri early on would at a minimum wake up the starters. Even once they closed the gap in the second half JB and company did not put the team in a position to win. Not once did he call a timeout to run a set play and actually had ileri in on an offensive set in a one possession game only to pull him after a turnover. This game has to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth. It wreaks of a lack of preparedness and complacency. The only silver lining is Lowell and Bryant lost.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that Becker should have made more adjustments in the first half.
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