Taylor Coppenrath had a season-high 29 points and teammate Grant Anderson recorded a triple double with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists to lead Vermont to an 89-81 win over visiting Northeastern in NU's America East opener at Patrick Gym on Wednesday.
Matt Sheftic added a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Catamounts, while David Hehn netted 16. Javorie Wilson led the Huskies with 23 points, Jose Juan Barea had 16 and Vermont native Jesse Dunn scored 12. Sylbrin Robinson added nine points and 12 rebounds.
The Huskies made a great rally to trim a 20-point second-half deficit to four, but could get no closer. NU trailed 72-52 after a Hehn jumper with 6:30 left. The Huskies outscored the Catamounts 21-7 over the next 4:11 to make it a 79-73 game with 2:19 to play.
UVM made just two of its next six free throws and NU kept chipping away at the lead, nearing within four (82-78) after Barea made a pair of free throws at the 1:17 mark. Sheftic scored at the other end after the Cats broke the NU press, and then Barea missed a three-pointer that could have made it a three-point game. Still, the Huskies stayed alive as Dunn made a trey to close the gap to 85-81 with 50 seconds showing. NU would get no closer, though, as Coppenrath made four straight foul shots to seal the game.
Robinson made a three-pointer on NU's first shot and it looked like the momentum from Sunday's upset victory at Boston College would continue. The Huskies led 7-4 with 17:27 to go in the first half when they went ice cold due in part to poor shot selection. NU missed nine straight shots, including five long three-pointers, as Vermont went on a 10-0 run capped by a pair of Coppenrath free throws for a 14-7 edge with 10:54 left. The Huskies never led again.
Dunn got NU out of its funk when his shot from well beyond the three-point arc banked in at the 10:27 mark, ending a Husky drought of exactly seven minutes. The Catamounts kept getting easy inside buckets from Anderson (5-5, 10 first-half points) and Coppenrath (12 in the first half, 6-6 at the line), while NU remained off. UVM pushed its lead to eight points twice before NU got within 29-26 with left before the break. The Catamounts ended the half on a surge, finished by a half-court, buzzer-beating heave by reserve Corey Sullivan for a 41-30 lead at intermission.
The Huskies shot 36.4 percent from the floor (12-33) in the first half, while UVM made 55.2 percent (16-29). NU was 3-12 from three-point land and had 12 turnovers.
NU has now lost four straight to the Cats and six in a row at Patrick Gym. Anderson became just the second UVM player ever to record a double-double, joining Kevin Roberson, who last accomplished the feat in 1992.
VISITORS: NORTHEASTERN 7-7, 0-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 WILSON, Javorie f 8-12 4-8 3-4 1 5 6 5 23 1 4 2 0 30
33 ROBINSON, Sylbrin f 3-5 1-3 2-2 3 9 12 4 9 2 3 1 1 30
52 OLIYNYK, Gene c 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 0 11
05 BAREA, Jose Juan g 5-16 1-7 5-6 0 0 0 3 16 5 3 0 1 32
11 MARTINEZ, Adrian g 0-8 0-4 1-2 1 3 4 2 1 3 2 0 1 22
20 WALKER, Jamaar 2-5 0-2 1-1 1 0 1 4 5 5 1 1 1 26
30 WRIGHT, Cornelius 2-5 0-0 0-1 2 3 5 2 4 0 3 0 2 16
32 DUNN, Jesse 5-8 2-4 0-0 3 2 5 4 12 2 0 0 0 20
41 DRAIN, Adam 3-10 3-8 0-0 3 0 3 3 9 0 1 0 2 13
TEAM ........................................ 3 1 4
TOTALS 29-71 11-36 12-16 17 24 41 27 81 18 18 5 8 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 12-33 36.4% 2ndH: 17-38 44.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 40.8% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 3-12 25.0% 2ndH: 8-24 33.3% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 30.6% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 3-5 60.0% 2ndH: 9-11 81.8% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 75.0% 2
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HOME TEAM: VERMONT 8-6, 3-0
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
22 COPPENRATH, Taylor f 8-15 0-1 13-15 3 3 6 2 29 1 2 0 1 39
42 ANDERSON, Grant f 5-6 0-0 1-5 3 9 12 3 11 10 3 1 5 40
52 SHEFTIC, Matt c 5-13 0-0 4-8 4 7 11 3 14 2 4 1 1 28
24 HEHN, David g 5-9 1-3 5-6 0 1 1 4 16 1 3 0 1 39
32 NJILA, Germain g 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 3 4 0 1 0 0 13
12 PHELAN, Jack 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
21 GOIA, Mike 2-7 1-3 2-2 1 3 4 1 7 1 2 0 1 25
40 SULLIVAN, Corey 2-3 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 1 2
43 JONES, Scotty 0-2 0-0 2-2 0 2 2 3 2 0 0 2 1 13
TEAM ........................................ 2 0 2
TOTALS 29-58 4-10 27-38 13 27 40 19 89 15 15 4 11 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 16-29 55.2% 2ndH: 13-29 44.8% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 50.0% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 2-6 33.3% 2ndH: 2-4 50.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 40.0% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 7-10 70.0% 2ndH: 20-28 71.4% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 71.1% 3
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OFFICIALS: Fran Connolly, William Laubenstein, Richard Antonelli
TECHNICAL FOULS:
NORTHEASTERN - none
VERMONT - none
ATTENDANCE: 1842
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT1 OT2 OT3 OT4 TOTAL
NORTHEASTERN 30 51 81
VERMONT 41 48 89
Catamounts extend school-record home winning streak to 15 games
Anderson triple-double first for uVM player since 1992
Brennan becomes UVM all-time leader in games coached with 458
