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BURLINGTON, Vt. – Sophomore
Kylie Butler scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, but the Hartford Hawks used a strong second half to post a 62-46 victory at Patrick Gymnasium in the America East opener for both teams. Hartford improved to 7-8 overall and opened league play at 1-0. Vermont fell to 3-10 on the year and 0-1 in the conference.
Butler made a season-high three 3-pointers and was a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line. Senior
Niki Taylor grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and chipped in six points for the Catamounts.
Amber Bepko paced the Hawks, scoring 16 points, all in the second half. Cherelle Moore added 13 points and 10 rebounds and Deanna Mayza totaled 12 points for Hartford.
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CatamounTV Highlights
Photo Gallery"We shot the ball poorly today. I give Hartford credit they were physical and we didn't respond in the way we needed to match their physicality. We've got to be able to finish plays. I thought
Kylie Butler played really hard tonight and she played her game. She's been more and more consistent as of late which is nice to see," said Vermont head coach
Lori Gear McBride.
Hartford, which never trailed in the contest, built an eight-point lead on a Shanise Bultron 3-pointer at the 11:40 mark of the first half. Butler drained back-to-back three's to even the game up, but Hartford pushed back out to a seven point lead with 1:08 remaining and went into the halftime break with a 24-19 advantage.
The Hawks started the second half with a 15-5 run to open up a double-digit lead on the Catamounts and led 39-24 with 14:21 remaining in the contest. Vermont cut the lead to eight, 42-34, behind a 10-3 spurt, but the Hawks held the Catamounts to one field goal over the final eight minutes of the game to pull away for the win.
Vermont finished the game shooting 22.4 percent from the field and was 14-for 26 from the foul line. The Catamounts dominated the offensive glass, out rebounding the Hawks 20-7 and 42-38 overall on the boards. Harford shot 44.2 percent from the floor in the game, including a 50 percent effort in the second half.
Vermont travels to Stony Brook on Wednesday (Jan. 7) for the first conference road game of the year. The Catamounts will take on the Seawolves in their new arena, the Island Federal Credit Union Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Kevin Fitzgerald will be calling the action on WVMT-620 AM (online:
SportsJuice.com). The game will also be broadcast online at
ESPN3.com.
NOTES: Butler's 18 points were a season-high and she was one rebound shy of her third double-double in four games … Butler has reached double figures in the scoring column in the last seven games …
Niki Taylor moved closer to the 1,000-point milestone and sits 46 points shy of the mark … She is also 36 rebounds away from 700 for her career.