Photo Credit: Shane Bufano
FINAL SCORE: Vermont 73, Saint Michael’s 44 | Box Score | Highlights : Catamounts TV | You Tube | Photos

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Seniors Marqus Blakely (Metuchen, N.J.) and Nick Vier (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) combined for 25 points to lead the University of Vermont men’s basketball team to a 73-44 victory over Saint Michael’s in preseason action on Saturday afternoon. The Cats broke the game open with a 24-5 run that extended over the two halves, as they will now prepare for the regular season opener at Loyola (Md.) on Friday.

Blakely finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Vier added 11 points and three assists. Vermont held the Purple Knights to shoot only 20.6 percent from the floor for the game and forced them to commit 24 turnovers.

“I thought we played pretty hard defense, but just didn’t shoot well today,” said Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan. “I thought we would be a little sharper and we need a good week of practice as we get ready for Loyola. Give Saint Michael’s credit, they battled hard.”

Saint Michael’s scored the first bucket of the contest, before the Catamounts rattled off the next 14 straight to take a 14-2 lead 4:04 in. Four of the five UVM starters scored in the spurt, including five apiece from seniors Vier and Maurice Joseph (Montreal, Quebec).

Vermont would stretch its lead to 21-6 when junior Evan Fjeld (Durham, N.C.) completed a three-point play. The visiting Purple Knights answered with a 12-4 run to cut the Cats’ lead to 25-18 after Sebastian Brandstetter hit a pair of free throws, but that would be as close as they would get at Vermont ended the half on an 8-0 run.

All 11 Catamounts in uniform saw action in the first half as they limited Saint Michael’s to shoot only 15.2 percent (5-33) from the floor. Vier led all scorers going into the break with 10 points.

Vermont opened the second half with sophomore Garvey Young (Washington, D.C.) stealing the ball and taking it the other way for a dunk. The Cats scored 16 of the first 21 points in the frame to extend their advantage to 49-23 on a lay-up by junior Garrett Kissel (Springfield, Mass.) with 12:15 left. Seven different Cats scored in the run.

Fjeld ended the game with nine points and seven rebounds, while Kissel added eight points and nine boards off the bench for Vermont. Tyler Schilling paced Saint Michael’s with 14 points, while Travis Warech added 11.

Vermont opens regular season play on Friday when it travels to face Loyola (Md.) starting at 7 p.m. The game can be heard live on 96.7 DOT-FM, The Zone 960 AM and WSTJ-1320 AM (Randolph), and on the internet at www.UVMathletics.com with the audio stream provided by SportsJuice.com.


NOTES: Vermont is 10-0 all-time under head coach Mike Lonergan in preseason games, as the Catamounts have won by an average of 22.1 points per contest … Prior to the game a banner was raised commemorating Vermont’s America East Regular Season Co-Championship and also its appearance in the College Basketball Invitational last season.