Women's Basketball Drops Conference Opener to Vermont

Burlington, Vt. - Courtnay Pilypaitis recorded her third career triple-double with 12 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in leading Vermont to a 92-47 victory over UAlbany in the Great Danes' America East Conference opener on Sunday, Jan. 10 at Patrick Gymnasium.

Vermont (13-3, AE 3-0), which has dropped all three of its games to opponents that are currently nationally ranked, scored the first 10 points of the contest over the opening 2:17 and led wire-to-wire. May Kotsopoulos netted five straight points in the opening 47 seconds to spark the early run before UAlbany's Julie Forster made consecutive layups to close the gap to six with 16:07 to play.

The Catamounts answered back with 11 straight points over the next three minutes with four players scoring to go ahead, 21-4, and would own a commanding 38-point advantage at the recess. Pilypaitis had seven points, seven assists and 10 rebounds through the 20 minutes of action.

UAlbany (7-7, AE 0-1), which entered the contest with its best 13-game start since joining the Division I ranks in 1999, had a better performance in the second half with Cassandra Callaway netting all of her career-high 10 points in the stanza. However, the deficit was too much for the visitors to overcome.

A layup by Alissa Sheftic gave the Catamounts their largest advantage of the game at 83-31. UAlbany came as close as 41 when Callaway nailed a jumper with 2:24 to play before Tonya Young scored the game's last four points to seal the final outcome.

In addition to Callaway, who also pulled down a career-best five rebounds, UAlbany was also paced by Forster and Felicia Johnson. Forster contributed nine points and matched her career high with three blocks. Johnson added eight points for the visitors, who will welcome UMBC to SEFCU Arena on Wednesday afternoon for their America East Conference home opener.

Young added her second career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds for Vermont, which outshot UAlbany 50.7 percent (35-69) to 23.0 percent (14-61) from the field. Kotsopoulous finished with 18 points, while Kendra Seto poured in 17 to round out the list of Catamounts who scored in double figures.

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information