Nov. 26, 2004
Box Score
BURLINGTON, Vt.-T.J. Sorrentine scored 31 points to lead four players in double figures as Vermont rolled past Marist, 90-70, at a sold-out Patrick Gym Friday night. Vermont evened its record at 1-1 with the win, while Marist dropped to 2-2. The Red Foxes played without senior captain Brandon Ellerbee who will miss the next six weeks with a displaced tendon in his right pinky finger, an injury he suffered at the beginning of the second half in Tuesday's 74-58 win at St. Bonaventure. Carl Hood, who started in place of Ellerbee, went down in the latter stages of Friday's first half with a back strain.
The win was the first of the season for the Catamounts (1-1), who lost a hard-fought battle at then-#1 Kansas a week ago.
Sorrentine tallied 18, and Taylor Coppenrath scored 13, in the first half as Vermont hit 61% of their shots to open up a 51-30 lead at the break. The Catamounts led by as many as 26 in the second half before Will Whittington (22 of a career-high 25 points in second half) led a late Marist (2-2) charge that cut the deficit to 80-65 with 4:05 to play.
"To Marist's credit they would not go away," said Vermont coach Tom Brennan. "They had a rough start but they played us pretty much even in the second half which is a tribute to them."
The sellout crowd was Vermont's third straight overlapping last season and it was the first sellout in a home opener since 1985 when they hosted Villanova, coached by UVM alum Rollie Massimino `56.
Sorrentine went 13-for-22 from the field, hit three 3-pt FG's and added four assists. Coppenrath, in just 29 minutes, added 18 points and had a team-high nine rebounds. Freshman Ryan Schneider (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) had 11 points while Germain Mopa Njila (Yaounde, Cameroon) added 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals. The Catamounts shot 56% from the field for the game, 10-for-25 in 3-pt FGs, and committed just 10 turnovers.
In addition to Whittington, who went six-for-13 from beyond the arc, Miles Orman scored a career-high 12 points and Will McClurkin added nine points and had a game-high 11 rebounds. The Red Foxes shot 39% from the floor and just 27% (7-for-26) from three-point range.
Marist will head to Holy Cross for a game Sunday at 7 p.m. against the Crusaders.
