FINAL SCORE: Vermont 99, UMBC 54
BALTIMORE, Md. – The Vermont men's basketball team put together one of its best performances of the season Saturday night, riding a high-powered offensive attack and stingy defense to a convincing 99-54 win over UMBC. UVM improves to 17-12 and 9-5 in league play while the Retrievers fall to 6-23 and 2-12 in conference action.
 
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Cam Ward led all scorers with a career-high 24 points and did it while shooting a perfect 7-of-7 from the field, 6-of-6 from deep and 4-of-4 from the foul line. He also chipped in four rebounds and three assists. Dre Wills stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Ethan O'Day (13 points, seven rebounds, four blocks), Ernie Duncan (11 points) and Darren Payen (10 points) all reached double figures for the Catamounts.
 
Jairus Lyles paced UMBC with 19 points.
 
Vermont shot 69.1% from the field and missed just 17 of its 55 field goal attempts. UMCBC, meanwhile, made only 17 shots and was held to just 29.8% shooting for the game.
 
Tied at nine apiece with just about four minutes gone in the first half, the Vermont offense exploded while the Catamount defense settled in. UVM outscored UMBC 46-18 for the remainder of the half.
 
Ward came off the bench to ignite the fire drilling five pointers without a miss in the first half. His first three – during a 21-7 UVM run – helped the Cats stretch their lead to 14 at the nine-minute mark.
 
The cushion ballooned to 20 just three minutes later when Wills finished an old-fashioned three-point play after converting a layup in transition.
 
Ward continued to sizzle late in the half knocking down another pair of trifectas before Trae Bell-Haynes calmly hit a pair of free throws to give UVM a 53-23 lead with under a minute to play in the half.
 
Vermont shot 21-of-29 (72.4%) in the first 20 minutes and limited UMBC to just 10-of-30 shooting.
 
The Catamounts stormed out the locker room and picked up right where they left off scoring 13 of the first 18 points in the second half. Both O'Day and Steidl scored four points during the opening minutes of the half. Ward stepped into his sixth three of the day to put UVM up 71-34 and then a pair of Ward free throws pushed the lead to 40.
 
Vermont led by as many as 49 thanks to a couple of interior buckets for Dylan Sinnickson and the night ended with Bell-Haynes dribbling out the clock on UVM's 19^th straight victory over UMBC.
 
One final regular season home game awaits the Catamounts as they return home to Burlington on Wednesday for 'Senior Night' and for a huge matchup against New Hampshire. Ethan O'Day and Dylan Sinnickson will be honored prior to the game against the Wildcats. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and all the action can be seen via a free HD stream on AmericaEast.TV. Local radio coverage begins at 6:30 with AJ Kanell and Bernie Cieplicki on the call.