Women's Basketball Falls Short In Conference Action

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Albany, N.Y. – Tonya Young scored a career-best 24 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds as the University of Vermont defeated the University at Albany, 77-54, in America East Conference women’s basketball action at SEFCU Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Catamounts, who were picked first in the league’s preseason coaches poll, broke a 38-38 deadlock at halftime by scoring the first 13 points of the second stanza to win their third conference game of the season.

Trailing by just four points, UAlbany (3-13, AE 1-2) went on a 16-4 run in the middle of the first half to take a 29-21 advantage with 6:25 left to play. Britney McGee scored six of her 12 points on a pair of trifectas during the stretch.

Vermont (9-8, AE 3-1) brought the Great Dane lead down to one, 29-28, with five minutes to play courtesy of a good jumper by Young before Janea Aiken answered back on the other end. Young gave the Catamounts their first lead since the 12:50 mark when she converted another jump shot in the paint with 26 seconds left in the half.

However, Felicia Johnson drilled two of her career-high 12 points to tie the score for the sixth time in the half. The teams headed to their locker rooms knotted at 38 through 20 minutes of action.

Young sparked a 13-0 Catamount run to start the second half, scoring the first seven points in the stretch. Following a timeout, the Great Danes, who held a 26-8 advantage in bench points, hit their first bucket when Johnson stole the ball from Alissa Sheftic and converted a layup on the other end.

Vermont, which outrebounded UAlbany by a 44-30 clip, netted the next six points to build a 17-point cushion with 8:38 remaining in regulation. A free throw by Shelby Coon cut the lead down to 14 points, but that was the closest the Great Danes would get the rest of the way.

“I thought we played a great 20 minutes against a very good team,” said head coach Trina Patterson, whose team shot 50 percent from the floor and behind the arc in the first half and just 26.9 percent from the floor in the second half. “They got away from us in the second half when they started to really go inside. Once they did that, we started to get worn out.”

In addition to Young’s career outing, Courtnay Pilypaitis, the league’s reigning player of the year, and May Kotsopoulos, last season’s America East defensive player of the year, combined for 32 points. Pilypaitis netted 17 points and also recorded six rebounds, six assists and five steals. Kotsopoulos scored 15 points while adding four assists.

Johnson, who stands only 5-foot-4, grabbed a team-best six rebounds and also dished out three assists. After netting just three points through the first 14 games, she has contributed 23 points in the past two contests. Amira Ford recorded four points, three rebounds and three assists. Janea Aiken added nine points and four rebounds, while Ashley Lindsay contributed six points off the bench.

For the game, the Catamounts outshot the Great Danes, 47.8 percent (32-67) to 39.7 percent (23-58) from the floor, and 50.0 percent (8-16) to 29.4 percent (5-17) from behind the arc. Vermont also outshot UAlbany, 71.4 percent (5-7) to 60 percent (3-5) from the free-throw line. The Catamounts shot 85.7 percent (6-7) from behind the arc in the second half, while the Great Danes did not convert a three-point field goal in the final 20 minutes.

“I thought we played well in the first half,” said Johnson, who set a career high in scoring for the second straight game. “We showed that we can compete with one of the best teams in our league. We will just have to get them back when we go to their place.”