Catamounts show Danes there’s more work to do
Vermont’s 20-2 start sets tone in blowout
As the University of Vermont basketball team’s bus pulled into the Capital Region, at least one of its occupants felt comfortable.
“It looks like home to me,” said Isaiah Moll, who played his high school ball at Colonie, “but everyone else is looking around like it’s just another campus, another city.”
When they took to the SEFCU Arena floor Saturday night to face the University at Albany, the Catamounts played like they owned the campus and the city.
In a rivalry game that has lost some of its lustre, Vermont busted out to a 20-2 lead and cruised to an 80-51 victory over the shell-shocked Great Danes in the America East Conference
opener for both schools.
Moll contributed five points and five rebounds in 24 minutes, but the Catamounts (11-4) showed plenty of depth. Eight others played at least 16 minutes as Vermont (11-4) beat Ualbany for a sixth straight time.
“When they get in a flow,” Danes coach Will Brown said,
“it’s like running into a buzzsaw.”
The two winningest teams over the past 15 America East seasons usually provide a gauge for how the conference might play out. The only thing the Danes (5-11) proved is that they have a long road ahead of them.
“The better team today won,” Brown said. “You’ve got to give Vermont credit. We’ve got to get better. We were making great progress. We took a step back. Now we’ve got to take a couple of steps forward this week in practice and take care of business.”
After Brent Hank scored the game’s opening bucket for Ualbany, Vermont scored the next 20 points. Anthony Lamb, who likely will emerge as the America East Player of the Year, had 10 straight, forcing Brown into a timeout with the score 12-2.
Lamb picked up his second personal foul with 14:21 to play in the half and didn’t return until after the break, but it didn’t matter. The Catamounts kept trotting out players who added to the onslaught, opening up a 36-19 halftime lead. They led by as many as 31 points.
“Everything was initiated off of our defense,” Vermont coach John Becker said. “Their three guards are good. (Ahmad) Clark came in averaging 19, we held him to nine, which was a big key for us. We won the rebounding battle (39-26), which is always a big deal when we play Albany, and we kept them off the free-throw line, where they’ve been good this year (22nd in the nation in free-throw percentage).”
Clark, the point guard, was shut out in the first half as several Vermont defenders hounded him. Cameron Healy, averaging 15.5 per game, scored only two before halftime. Antonio Rizzuto had all of his seven points in the first half.
“The big (defender) was staying with me until I gave the ball up,” Clark said. “I had to make the right play, right read off it. I missed some shots that I usually can make.”
Adam Lulka gave the Danes some presence on the inside. He took a career-high 15 shots, which Brown has been wanting him to do, and pitched in with 15 points and eight rebounds.
“They were playing tough,” Lulka said. “They scrap. As a team, they’re well-disciplined and executed properly.”
What disturbed Brown is what happened after the missed shots.
“With each missed shot, we had less energy on the defensive side of the ball,” he said. “It’s easy to play defense when shots are going in, you’re winning, you’re feeling good about yourself.”
Many of the 2,733 present came down from Burlington, and Vermont picked up a few more fans because of Moll.
“When I got my ovation when I came out, it sounded loud,”
Moll said.
Moll is averaging 21.5 minutes and 7.2 points, which ranks fourth on the team.
“In high school, I was the biggest, most physical, most athletic guy,” he said, “but everyone’s like that in college. I’m changing my game in a sense of having to use more skills and making the easy play and not try and do too much.”
“He’s going to be a great player for us,” Becker said. “He’s just adjusting to the college game and going through the ups and downs of transitioning from being the guy that was featured in high school, like all of our guys, and then changing to college and learning how to be efficient and effective in the college game.”