Vermont Takes New Hampshire Frustration Out on Maine

Vermont played like a team who was pissed off about losing to New Hampshire. Tonight in Burlington, the Catamounts improved to 4-2, while Maine sank to a disappointing 2-3 in conference play.

The most impressive part of Vermont's 79-65 win over Maine was the commitment to defense. They limited Maine's high-powered offense to 40% from the field and limited Maine's best big man, Alisdair Fraser, to 7 points -- half of his average -- on 2-6 shooting. While Justin Edwards and Gerald McLemore, Maine's two leading scorers, combined for 33 points, it took them 33 shots do so. That is not particularly efficient.

More analysis of Vermont's Northern New England Supremacy after the jump.

Vermont's scoring numbers were split quite evenly: Four McGlynn finished with 16, Luke Apfeld with 13, Matt Glass with 14, and Brian Voelkel with 10. Voelkel also finished with 7 assists and 5 rebounds. They went 20-23 from the free throw line, which is a new and surprising trend they have developed since conference play began. Hopefully they can continue to shoot 80% from the free throw line (123-154), but that's probably not realistic. A good sign for the Catamounts, though, is that they are getting to the free throw line that often -- about 25 times a game.

None of the scoring leaders stood out to me tonight as two other guys. Let's talk about Sandro Carissimo and Clancy Rugg. Oscar The Geezer and myself have been exchanging e-mails for a few weeks now about how Rugg out favorite Vermont player to watch blossom as of late, and it was especially true tonight. Rugg had 7 rebounds in 18 minutes tonight. In conference play he is averaging 10.6 ppg and 4.0 rpg in just 15.4 minutes per game. Give me a break! And the numbers don't tell the whole story. He provides Vermont with an athletic lift that they don't necessarily have in their starting lineup right now. This guy doesn't even have a scholarship, and he has emerged as perhaps the best Vermont big man off the bench. And, if you didn't already know (because you live under a rock), he's from the hot bed of basketball talent: Burlington, Vermont. What more could a Cats fan ask for?

Now to Sandro. At some point this season, some idiotic writer for this blog wrote that Josh Elbaum was bound to be getting as much playing time as Carissimo as the season progressed. He was obsessed with Elbaum's ability to penetrate and take care of the basketball. What that writer overlooked was the fact that Elbaum can't stroke the ball like Carissimo or defend like him. Sandro really does have a nice shooting touch -- he seems to specialize in the shot-clock-is-running-down-prayer, but we'll take it -- he just doesn't shoot enough. Or is that the beauty of it? Like last year, when he was 27-47 from three-point range, a stat I don't even need to look up to know, he has been efficient from three, and that has been a key. Okay, he is not quite as good this year: 15-42, but that is really not a bad compliment to Four McGlynn's 33-83. Carissimo also has taken care of the ball much better than he did last season. He has shown a great deal of confidence playing for Coach Becker. Sandro also did a nice job defending Justin Edwards when he had to tonight. Elbaum is a fine back-up, but Sandro is definitively this Vermont team's point guard.

After a solid home win, Vermont gets a couple of days off before hosting Albany in a match-up of 4-2 teams. (I'm so not worried about the Not-So-Great-Danes).