UVM basketball holds off pesky Quinnipiac

The holiday break can't come soon enough for the University of Vermont men's basketball team.

That was the prevailing sentiment out of the post-game news conference following the Catamounts' 80-73 victory over pesky Quinnipiac on Thursday night.

Perhaps fatigued and weary from one of the nation's toughest nonconference slates, Vermont closed out the 2017 calendar year with an uneven performance in holding off MAAC bottom-feeder Quinnipiac in front of 2,349 at Patrick Gym.

Sophomore Anthony Lamb tallied 20 points and six rebounds and Trae Bell-Haynes recorded 16 points, eight boards and five assists to power the Catamounts (8-5), who never trailed but had to turn away waves of comeback bids from the Bobcats.

Brothers Ernie Duncan (11 points) and Everett Duncan (10) also hit double figures for UVM, which opened a double-digit halftime advantage before halting Quinnipiac's 3-point barrage that saw the Catamount margin slice into single digits on several occasions. 

"Give Quinnipiac a lot of credit. They played hard and well and they made a lot of 3s," UVM coach John Becker said. "But there is something still missing with this group as far being able to get stops and being connected.

"This break comes at a good time. It’s been a long grind this part of the season."

Cameron Young paced four Quinnipiac (3-9) players in double figures with 18 points on the strength of four 3s. The Bobcats finished 13 of 32 on 3-point attempts.

Although happy to come away with the win, Bell-Haynes said Thursday's contest was a microcosm of UVM's season to date.

"We play a couple minutes of nice basketball, really smooth offensively and defensively, and then followed by a couple minutes of really choppy play, a lot of breakdowns, not knowing what coverage we are in," Bell-Haynes said. "We are still trying to figure it out unfortunately.  I mean we won the game and that’s a positive. But we need to clean up the coverage, clean up the communication."

UVM's best stretch came in the first half, when it forced a couple of shot-clock violations and got rolling with a 10-0 spurt to break free from a 13-all deadlock. UVM ballooned that margin to a game-high 17 points following Ben Shungu's driving basket and Everett Duncan's 3-pointer with 45 seconds until intermission.

"Then we took our foot off the gas completely and mentally we just check out a couple minutes at a time," Bell-Haynes said.

UVM's second-half advantage hovered around double digits — and stretched to 14 points twice, both on Lamb's baskets — but the Bobcats hung around and clipped the deficit to five points, 71-66, with 1:15 to play. Quinnipiac also go to within 76-72 with 26 seconds to go on Rich Kelly's triple.

UVM, though, made 9 of 10 foul shots down the stretch to salt way the victory and avoid a late-game meltdown.

"We are finding our way, it’s a process. We will get better," Lamb said. "I don’t doubt us at all that we are going to get through this and be better after the break."

Without starter Payton Henson, who suffered a hip injury in practice Tuesday, UVM didn't offer up that absence as an excuse.

"Obviously, Payton brings so much to the table, how skilled he is, how versatile he is and his ability to defend multiple positions," Bell-Haynes said. "So we missed that a bit, but the game plan is always the same. With Payton being out, we missed him, but we have that next guy mentality."

Henson remains day-to-day.

Jacob Rigoni (four 3s) tallied 17 points and Kelly and Isaiah Washington tossed in a dozen points apiece for the Bobcats, who finished 26 of 56 from the floor.

UVM did sink 57.2 percent of its shots and committed just seven turnovers. But beyond the box score, Becker knows things must improve before UVM plays at Harvard on Jan. 2. Or when conference play starts up soon after.

"If we don’t get some sense of urgency and start to make some changes, we will get steamrolled," Becker said. "Don’t get me wrong, I love our team and I love our group and if we can get a chip on our shoulder, we’ll be in good shape."

Contact Alex Abrami at 660-1848 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aabrami5.

VERMONT 80, QUINNIPIAC 73

QUINNIPIAC (3-9)

Bundu 3-6 1-2 7, Chigha 2-2 0-0 4, Washington 4-12 1-3 12, Kelly 4-9 3-5 12, Young 6-13 2-3 18, Rigoni 6-11 1-2 17, Aa.Robinson 0-2 0-0 0, An.Robinson 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 26-56 8-15 73.

VERMONT (8-5)

Urquhart 3-4 0-0 6, Lamb 7-13 3-4 20, Er.Duncan 5-12 0-0 11, Bell-Haynes 6-7 4-7 16, Ev.Duncan 2-4 4-4 10, Rohrer 1-2 0-0 2, Dingba 1-1 0-0 2, Shungu 1-1 0-0 2, Smith 1-3 0-0 3, Ward 3-5 0-0 8. Totals 30-52 11-15 80.

Halftime—Vermont 39-26. 3-Point Goals—Quinnipiac 13-32 (Rigoni 4-6, Young 4-11, Washington 3-9, An.Robinson 1-1, Kelly 1-3, Aa.Robinson 0-2), Vermont 9-21 (Lamb 3-7, Ward 2-3, Ev.Duncan 2-4, Smith 1-3, Er.Duncan 1-4). Fouled Out—Young. Rebounds—Quinnipiac 26 (Bundu 7), Vermont 32 (Bell-Haynes 8). Assists—Quinnipiac 15 (Kelly 9), Vermont 13 (Bell-Haynes 5). Total Fouls—Quinnipiac 18, Vermont 16. A—2,349 (3,228).