Vermont Defeats Concordia in Exhibition

BOX SCORE

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Freshman Garvey Young (Washington, D.C.) led four Catamounts in double figures with 14 points as the University of Vermont men's basketball team topped visiting Concordia 77-69 on Sunday afternoon in preseason action at Patrick Gym. Junior Marqus Blakely (Metuchen, N.J.) added 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in the first game action of the season for the Cats.

Young shot 6-for-9 from the floor in his Catamount debut, while senior Colin McIntosh (Milton, Mass.) added 13 points and eight rebounds and sophomore Joey Accaoui (Lincoln, R.I.) chipped in with 10.

"It was a little bit ugly, but I am glad we got the win today," said Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan. "We played a lot of guys and experimented with some different line-ups and it was good to get some of the new guys out there. Hopefully we will improve this week a play better next weekend against Saint Michael's."

In a tightly played first half that saw 10 lead changes, the visitors scored four straight to take their biggest lead of the frame at 25-20 with 8:24 to go. After a lay-up by Blakely, Desmond Murphy hit a pair of free throws and Damian Buckley hit a short jumper in the lane to make it a five-point game.

The Cats would respond with a 21-9 run over the next 6:58 to take a 41-32 advantage. Six different Cats scored in the spurt, led by seven points from Young. Freshman Jordan Clarke (Rockville, Md.) made it a nine-point lead with 1:26 to go on a lay-up for Vermont's biggest lead of the first half. Accaoui led the Cats in the first half with 10 points as Vermont took a 43-36 lead into the break.

A three-pointer by Young 6:33 into the second half pushed Vermont's lead to 10 at 54-44 and an alley-oop from Nick Vier (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) to Blakely gave the Cats their biggest lead of the afternoon at 63-52 with 8:04 left.

Concordia would score the nine of the next 10 to cut it to three with 4:47 remaining. Buckley hit six free throws in the run and Adam Carneol hit a three to make it 64-61. Vermont answered as McIntosh hit four free throws, sandwiched around a bucket by Young to extend its lead back to nine.

The Stingers would cut it to three at 72-69 on a pair of free throws from Dwayne Buckley with 49 ticks on the clock, but that would be as close as they would get.

Vermont returns to action on Saturday when it hosts cross-town rival Saint Michael's at 4 p.m. in the Cats final preseason tune up. The game can be heard live on DOT 96.7 FM, WEAV 960 AM, WVTK 92.1 FM and WTSA 1450 AM(Brattleboro), and on the internet at www.uvmathletics.com with the audio stream provided by sportsjuice.com.