FINAL SCORE: Vermont 61, Stony Brook 57
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont earned its third consecutive weekend sweep with a 61-57 win over Stony Brook on Sunday afternoon in America East action. The Catamounts have won their last seven games and improve to 9-3. The Seawolves drop to 8-12 on the year and 6-8 in conference play.
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score: Web | PDF
CatamounTV: Game Highlights | Postgame Press Conference
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"Today was a great gutty effort and I thought both teams played really hard," said Cioffi Men's Basketball Head Coach John Becker. "It was really an impressive effort by the guys this weekend, especially after a month layoff, and we made the plays down the stretch to win the game."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• After a slow start from both sides, the rivals started to heat up from outside and traded triples. The Catamounts hit their first three long-range attempts while the Seawolves countered with two of their own as the home team led 11-10 but the first media timeout.
• The rest of the half was a tightly-played defensive battle. With the game tied at 14-14 at the 11-minute mark, UVM used seven minutes of the clock to build a 24-17 edge. The Cats held a 28-26 lead at the break despite Stony Brook's best effort to close the gap. Juan Felix Rodriguez sank a deep fadeaway three in front of the Vermont bench with five ticks left before the recess.
• Clinging to a 36-35 lead and 15 minutes left in the game, the Green and Gold used the long ball to gain some separation. Stef Smith canned a triple from the right wing and Tomas Murphy buried back-to-back treys to push the advantage to double digits as a part of a 9-0 run in three minutes.
• Stony Brook would not go away quietly thanks to Rodriguez. With the Cats up 54-44 with six minutes to go, he scored eight points in two minutes including two deep threes to help SBU draw within 56-52.
• As the game came down the final minute, SBU's Frankie Policelli drove into the paint and laid in a reverse layup to trim UVM's lead down to 58-57. After Vermont missed the front end of a 1-and-1, its defense stepped up and got a stop. Mouhamadou Gueye tried to give Stony Brook the lead with a dunk but missed and Bailey Patella came down with the rebound. The Seawolves were forced to foul and sent Ben Shungu to the line for a pair. The redshirt senior made both and padded the lead to 60-57 with 15 seconds to go.
• On Stony Brook's final possession, Policelli missed a left-wing three and Justin Mazzulla gathered the rebound with four seconds left on the clock. The Seawolves fouled Mazzulla, who made one at the charity stripe for the final margin of victory.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Murphy had his best game this season with a team-high 17 points. He shot 5-of-10 from the field and set a career-high with five three-pointers. The graduate student also pulled down five rebounds.
• Smith capped off a great weekend with 15 points, seven boards, and four assists. He connected on 6-of-12 attempts from the floor and drained 3-of-6 tries from three-point land. With two triples in early in the game, the senior guard cracked the school's career top-10 list with 190 three-pointers.  
• Ryan Davis was the third Catamount in double figures with 13 points and four rebounds.
• With the weekend sweep, the Cats have won 11 out of the last 13 meetings with the Seawolves and lead the all-time series 34-12.
• When the Cats Win, the Community Wins. With each Catamount win, Vermont Mutual Insurance donates $100 to the Vermont Foodbank. For 2020 they donated $15,000 to Spectrum Youth and Family Services. A special thank you to Vermont Mutual Insurance for their support. Vermont Mutual Insurance, protecting Vermonters since 1828
• This season People's United Bank, N.A. will again be generously donating $25 to Sara Holbrook Community Center for every three-point shot that the Catamounts make during the regular season home games. With today's 10 3s, the total being donated is now up to $1,925. 

WHO'S NEXT
Vermont will head to rival UMBC on Thursday (Feb. 18) and Friday (Feb. 19) in a rematch of last year's America East Semifinal. Thursday's game will be nationally televised on ESPNU at 7 p.m. Friday's matchup will be streamed on either ESPN3 or ESPN+ at 5 p.m. Fans can also listen live on the Vermont Sports Network, from Learfield IMG College, on 101.3 The Game or online at Catamounts All-Access with Brian McLaughlin on the call.
 
Key Motors of South Burlington is the presenting sponsor of the 2020-21 Vermont men's basketball season