FINAL SCORE: Vermont 67, NJIT 37

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont (23-7, 12-3 AE) returned to the win column on Saturday evening in a victory over NJIT (17-11, 8-7 AE) on Senior Night at Patrick Gym. All 11 Catamounts saw playing time, and the Catamounts outscored the Highlanders 18-6 in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

RELATED LINKS

Box Score | CatamountTV Highlights 

COACH'S QUOTE

" I'm proud of how we responded. Obviously, the last performance was a tough performance in the toughness piece, in my opinion," said Mayer Women's Basketball Head Coach Alisa Kresge. "And then today, we come out and have 40 rebounds, and 13 offensive rebounds. Those are hustle plays, that's the toughness stuff that we know we're capable of. The way the game started, I was a little scared that we were going to give up a lot of points with how fast they were scoring. I think that was partly due to how we were turning the ball over. But then, when we locked in, I think the turnovers came from just the excitement and energy we wanted to bring. So once we started to lock in and take care of the ball and our defense matched that, I thought we did a really good job." 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Highlanders jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the opening minutes of the quarter, building the advantage by the 6:07 mark behind points from Ava Locklear, Allison Cannon, Alejandra Zuniga, and Marissa Gringrich.

• The Catamounts answered with an 11-7 run to close the first quarter, beginning with an Emma Haan three-pointer and ending with a Jacklynn Hosier layup with 45 seconds remaining. Four different players scored during the run for Vermont.

• The Catamounts opened the second quarter on a 10-4 run. Keira Hanson sparked the surge with five points, scoring on a midrange jumper and a three-pointer. Nikola Priede capped the run with a layup off an assist from Jadyn Weltz.

• The Catamounts closed the quarter on a 7-4 run. Priede scored on a layup, followed by a Weltz three-pointer and Hanson's close-range jumper. Vermont led 30-24 at halftime.

• The Catamounts pushed their lead to 41-26 midway through the third quarter, using an 11-2 run to build the advantage by the 4:47 mark. Priede scored the first six points of the surge and finished with eight during the stretch.

• Vermont closed the third quarter on an 8-5 run, taking a 49-31 lead into the fourth.

• The fourth quarter began with a 9-0 Vermont run, highlighted by six straight points from Priede. Hanson capped the surge with a three-pointer, prompting an NJIT timeout with 6:46 remaining.

• Out of the timeout, Vermont went on a 9-6 run to close out the game, earning a 67-37 victory.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Priede recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 25 points and 11 rebounds, while also adding four assists.

• Hanson added 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range.

• Malia Lenz added 12 points and nine rebounds.

• Weltz scored seven points and dished out eight assists.

• Vermont outrebounded NJIT on the offensive glass, 13-5.

• Vermont shot 45.2% from the field (28-of-62), outpacing NJIT's 33.3% (16-of-48). The Catamounts also connected on 35.7% of their three-pointers (5-of-19) compared with 22.2% (2-of-9) for the Highlanders. From the free-throw line, Vermont made six of seven attempts (85.7%) while NJIT converted three of nine (33.3%).

• With today's Win, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group will donate $100 to the Ronald McDonald House through the Cat's Win, Community Win's initiative. Vermont Mutual has donated over $6 Million Dollars since launching their Charitable Giving Fund in 2014.

UP NEXT

UVM travels to Lowell, Mass., to face the Riverhawks on Thursday, Feb. 26. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN+. The radio broadcast will be available via the Varsity Network App with Ryan Zimmerman on the call.