Photo Credit: Lisa Champagne
FINAL SCORE: Vermont 52, NC State 47 | Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. – Seniors Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario) and May Kotsopoulos (Waterloo, Ontario) combined to score 36 points to lead the Vermont Catamounts past North Carolina State, 52-47, in the championship game of the Sheraton Raleigh Wolfpack Invitational.

Kotsopoulos was named the tournament MVP after pouring in a game-high 21 points. She finished the weekend with 47 points after scoring a game-high 28 in a victory over Western Michigan in the season opener on Friday.

Pilypaitis added 15 points, four rebounds and five steals against the Wolfpack and joined Kotsopoulos on the all-tournament team. Pilypaitis was one rebound shy of her third career triple-double in Friday's game (21 pts, 9 reb, 10 ast).

"May and Courtnay were outstanding this weekend. They stood out as premier players through not only their talent, but their leadership too," said Vermont head coach Sharon Dawley.

Vermont (2-0) led for much of the game, but a late rally by NC State allowed the Wolfpack to tie the game up in the closing minutes.

A pair of free throws by freshman Lauren Buschmann (St. Catharines, Ontario) with 6:01 remaining gave Vermont a 47-40 lead. NC State held the Catamounts without a basket and scored seven straight points over the next 5:59, capped by a jumper from Lucy Ellison knotted the game at 47-47 with 59 seconds remaining.

In the ensuing possession, Pilypaitis drove the lane and converted a layup with 36 seconds left to put Vermont back up by two, 49-47. After a missed shot by NC State, Pilypaitis corralled the rebound and was fouled in the backcourt. She made one of two free throws to push UVM's lead to three, 50-47, with 25 seconds remaining.

NC State's Marissa Kastanek three-point attempt missed the mark and Vermont was able to regain possession. With three seconds left, freshman Kendra Seto (Oshawa, Ontario) sank two free throws for the final score, 52-47 and sealed the win for Vermont.

NC State (1-1) scored the first basket of the game, but never led the rest of the way. Vermont moved out to an eight-point lead on a three-pointer by Seto at the 12:45 mark of the first half and would push the margin to 11 on a jumper by Pilypaitis with 10:35 remainig. NC State answered with an 18-9 run to close the half, but Vermont held a 28-26 lead at the break.

Kotsopoulos came alive in the second half. She scored Vermont's first 11 points of the second stanza, including a pair of three-pointers, to stretch UVM's lead to seven, 39-32, at the 16:11 mark. A three-point play by Pilypaitis followed and Vermont's lead grew to 10 with 14:27 left.

The Wolfpack put together an 8-1 spurt to climb back within three, 43-40, with just over eight minutes left and that led to the late rally by NC State, but Vermont was able to hold on for the victory.

"I was impressed with Sofia's rebounding effort, her composure out on the court and the leadership she displayed tonight. Alissa gave us key minutes and three freshmen, (Kendra) Seto, (Lauren) Buschmann and (Morgan) Albert gave us a spark."

"Seto remained composed and hit some shots for us, Buschmann did a great job on the boards and hit those two key free throws in the closing seconds and Albert had great spurts of energy for us and played like an upperclassmen. It's exciting to see this from newcomers just two games in the season."

Seto finished the game with nine points and seven rebounds, following up on her 15-point five rebound performance against Western Michigan. Buschmann added five rebounds and senior Sofia Iwobi (Fairfield, Iowa) collectd a team-high 10 boards in her first start of the year.

After shooting 40.7 percent in the first half, UVM was able to hold NC State to 33.3 percent shooting in the second half and 37 percent for the game.

Vermont went to the line 21 times, making 12 free throws, while the Wolfpack made seven trips to the stripe (5-for-7). The Catamounts also forced NC State into 21 turnovers, which translated into 22 points for UVM.

Nikitta Gartrell led NC State in scoring with 10 points and added five rebounds.

"I am proud of this win, but there are still a lot of things we can improve on. That is and always has been our goal, to get better everyday. We got better this weekend and proved to ourselves that we can compete with a lot of teams and win some games if we stick together."

Vermont returns to action on Sunday (Nov. 22) at Boston College. The game is slated for 2 p.m. at Conte Forum and will be broadcast on WVMT-620 AM and on the Internet at SportsJuice.com.

GAME NOTES: NC State was receiving votes in the preseason national polls. This was UVM's second victory in the program's history over an ACC team, the last was on Nov. 25, 2006 vs. Boston College in the championship game of the URI Invitational. This is the fourth in-season championship win for the Catamounts under Sharon Dawley.