Jan. 28, 2007

Box Score

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Vermont netted the first eight points of the game and never looked back as the Catamounts topped the Stony Brook University men's basketball team, 71-61, on Sunday afternoon. The loss drops the Seawolves to 7-13, 2-7 while Vermont improves to 15-6, 7-1.

"When you play a very good team like Vermont, you cannot shot 24% in the first half and expect to win," said head coach Steve Pikiell. "We didn't make jump shots when we needed to today."

The Catamounts roared out to an 8-0 lead forcing the Seawolves to call a timeout. Vermont, who shot 50% in the first half, led by as many as 14 after a trifecta by Kyle Cieplicki with 7:09 left in the first half gave the visitors a 24-10 lead. The Seawolves clawed their way back, hitting three straight from downtown to cut the lead to 24-19 with 5:52 to play. However, Vermont closed out the first half on a 12-3 run to lead 36-22 heading into the locker room.

Trailing by as much as 15 in the second half, the Seawolves cut the lead to just five with 8:42 remaining after Ricky Lucas hit a jumper in the lane. Stony Brook would be held scoreless for the next 4:02 as Vermont seized control of the game on a 8-0 spurt during the Seawolves dry spell. The Catamounts shot 26-of-32 from the charity stripe in the game.

Lucas was the lone Seawolf in double figures as he tallied a game-high 18 points. Freshman Kyle Wright added nine points while classmate Marcus Robinson chipped in with eight.

Mike Trimboli scored 17 points to lead three Catamounts in double figures. Cieplicki netted 16 while Chris Holm recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 boards.

Lucas and Trimboli were selected as the America East Players of the Game.

The Seawolves look to snap their three-game slide as they travel to face Binghamton on Wednesday. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. in Vestal, N.Y.