FINAL SCORE: Vermont 61, Binghamton 52
VESTAL, N.Y. – The Vermont men's basketball team picked up its fourth straight win away from Patrick Gym and climbed back over .500 in league play with Thursday night's 61-52 victory over Binghamton. UVM improves to 3-2 in league play and 11-9 overall while Binghamton falls to 3-15 overall and remains winless in conference action.
 
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Kurt Steidl played one of his best all-around games in the win finishing with a team-high 16 points, six rebounds and four steals. Drew Urquhart contributed solid minutes off the bench collecting eight points and four rebounds while Dre Wills stuffed the stat sheet with eight points and four rebounds of his own to go along with three assists, three steals and two blocks.
 
The Catamounts forced 17 Bearcat turnovers and converted the miscues into 23 points.
 
Marlon Beck II led all scorers with 18 points including five three pointers. Willie Rodriguez also reached double figures for Binghamton finishing with 10 points (eight coming at the free throw line).
 
After Binghamton scored the first four points of the game, Vermont answered quickly with back-to-back three pointers from Nate Rohrer. Steidl picked a pocket on the defensive end and found a streaking Ethan O'Day (six points, five rebounds) who finished a dunk in transition at the 16:48 mark to make it an 8-0 run.
 
UVM held Binghamton scoreless for 6:41 and took a 14-5 lead with 11:06 to go in the first half thanks to a pair of buckets from Drew Urquhart and a fastbreak layup by Cam Ward. The 14-1 run occurred over a seven minute span.
 
Bobby Ahearn kept the Bearcats in the game with two straight buckets before Beck II hit triple to cut the lead to five.
 
Over the last eight minutes of the half, however, three different Catamounts hit shots from beyond the arc and the boys from Burlington took a 26-18 lead into the locker room.
 
The Bearcats caught fire to start the second half after Vermont pushed the lead out to a game-high 12 at the 17:58 mark. Beck II connected on two more from deep and then John Schurman followed suit with one of his own to cut the lead to five, 34-29.
 
Vermont held its opponent at bay for a majority of the second half thanks to some clutch shooting from Steidl. A Binghamton three trimmed the lead to four with just about seven minutes remaining but Steidl drilled his second trifecta of the day on the ensuing possession.
 
That shot ignited a 10-1 UVM run over the next six minutes. During that stretch, Wills picked up one of his three steals and went coast-to-coast for the layup and then Steidl buried a step-back three to seal the win for the Catamounts.
 
The Catamounts are back in action on Sunday afternoon when they host UMBC at Patrick Gym. The Retrievers make the trip up from Baltimore for the first time this season and tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. The game can be seen on AmericaEast.TV and heard on the ESPN 101.3 FM with coverage starting at 12:30.