The Sweet Taste of Revenge: Vermont, Sandro Carissimo, Take Down the Wildcats

His name is Sandro Carissimo. All he did tonight was put the state of Vermont on his back and lead them to a win, scoring 8 points in 2 minutes to open up an 11 point lead over that funny, upside-down state people call New Hampshire. Vermont never looked back.

You see, before that happened, Vermont had trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half. They had weathered the perfect storm of New Hampshire shooting 68% in the first half. They had endured foul trouble for two of their best players. New Hampshire stayed in the game until Carissimo went to work with just over 7 minutes remaining, with Vermont clinging to a 61-58 point lead.

The Sandro and Four Show Continues After the Jump.

Coming into this game, I said the key was for Vermont to shoot three pointers, something they did not do in their last meeting with the Wildcats. They went 4-13 from deep. Not that good, right? Wrong. New Hampshires perimeter defense is the fourth best in the country. More importantly, all four of those threes were in huge situations. In the midst of trading baskets with the Wildcats, Four McGlynn -- who finished with a cool 20 points --knocked down the initial three with time expiring on the shot clock to take a 34-32 point lead. Then, with time running out in the first half, Clancy Rugg -- aka the best walk-on in the history of Division I basketball -- nailed a trey to give Vermont a 43-40 lead going into the locker room. And then Sandro went bonkers, nailing two threes on back-to-back possessions to stretch the lead to double digits. He sandwiched those threes in between a couple of twos to score 10 consecutive points for the Catamounts when they needed it most. The rout was on from there.

Vermont also made a serious commitment to defense in the second half. New Hampshire's shooting percentage went from 68% in the first half to 26% in the second. They forced 15 New Hampshire turnovers. They limited Cat-killer Patrick Konan to one field goal on the game (though he did go 10-10 from the line despite not being a very good free throw shooter).

This is a good win for Vermont. They kept pace with BU, staying in second place at 7-2. This is particularly important because Vermont travels to Boston on Wednesday in a battle for second place, outright.

Time to do work.