FINAL SCORE: Vermont 85, Hartford 54
BURLINGTON, Vt.– The Catamounts led the entire game and cruised to an 85-54 win in the America East home opener on Sunday afternoon at Patrick Gym. With the victory, Vermont extended its winning streak to four games which ties a season-long.  
 
RELATED LINKS
CatamounTV Highlights
Box Score (Web) | Box Score (.pdf)
 
The 31-point win is the largest margin of victory for a conference home opener in program history since joining America East in 1979-80. The Cats beat the Hawks for the seventh straight time and improve to 12-5 overall and 2-0 in league play. Hartford drops its conference opener and falls to 5-11 on the year.  
 
Vermont controlled just about every facet of the game. The Cats shot 56.7% (34-of-60) from the floor including nine three-pointers and held Hartford to only 32.8% (20-of-61) shooting. UVM outscored Hartford 42-24 in the paint and transformed 18 turnovers by the Hawks into 33 points on the offensive end. The green and gold showed its depth by winning the bench battle 47-13.
 
Darren Payen recorded his fourth straight game with double figures as the redshirt senior scored a team-high 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Trae Bell-Haynes followed with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and dished out five assists. Payton Henson added 11 points and five rebounds in his first game back since Dec. 10 after nursing a leg injury. Ernie Duncan and Kurt Steidl each shot 3-for-5 from long distance for nine points.
 
Hartford's Jalen Ross dropped five triples for a game-high 19 points. Jason Dunne and Hasson Attia scored nine points apiece as Attia finished with a game-high eight rebounds.
 
The Catamounts started the game on a 9-0 run by sinking their first three attempts from beyond the arc, including a pair from Duncan. After the Hawks answered with scores on their next two possessions, UVM kept the momentum on its side with a 7-0 run after Steidl made his second three-point shot of the afternoon along with mid-range jumpers from Payen and Drew Urquhart.
 
At the midway point of the half, Vermont had jumped out to a 31-12 lead after blowing the game open with a 14-5 run. The remainder of the period belonged to the green and gold as the group closed out the half on a 20-10 run and held a 52-22 lead at the break, which set a season-high for the most points in the first half.
 
In the second half, the conference foes traded buckets for the first five minutes until UVM produced a 10-0 run and padded its lead to 68-32 with 12:28 to play.
 
With a 28-point lead and five minutes to play, the Cats put the game away with a 10-0 run in a two-and-a-half-minute span to stay unbeaten in the young conference schedule.
 
Vermont heads to the Empire State on Wednesday (Jan. 11) to play Binghamton. Action gets underway at 7 p.m. All UVM men's basketball games can be heard on ESPN 101.3 FM and online at 1013ESPN.com with Sam Hyman on the call. The game will be streamed on ESPN3 and the watchESPN app by logging in with your cable provider.

Canon Solutions America is the presenting sponsor of the 2016-17 men's basketball season