Offense carries Vermont basketball past UMass Lowell

University of Vermont senior Finn Sullivan made his first 3-point attempt. Then his second and his third and his fourth — a perfect 4 of 4 blitz from deep to start Saturday night's America East men's basketball showdown vs. UMass Lowell.

"I just came in and I was ready to go. First one went down and then it was just up from there," Sullivan said. "Once you hear that roar (from the crowd) when you make a shot, you have all the confidence in the world to make the next one."

Sullivan looked like he couldn't miss, his teammates started to match him, and a revved-up Patrick Gym faithful helped ignite the Catamounts' wire-to-wire, 93-81 victory over the River Hawks.

The Catamounts (15-10, 9-2) produced their best offensive performance to date, setting season highs for field-goal percentage, 3-pointers made and total points against a Division I opponent. The 2,737 who attended also topped any home crowd this winter through eight home games.

Pushing their winning streak to seven games, the defending league champion Cats own a two-game lead over Binghamton atop the conference standings with five games to go. Lowell (20-7, 7-5), which entered Saturday night in second place, dropped into a three-way tie for third with Bryant and Maryland-Baltimore County.

"I told the guys before the game, 'This is why you come to Vermont, to play really meaningful games in middle of February through March,'" UVM coach John Becker said. "And tonight started to feel like playoff basketball."

Sullivan finished with five 3s in a 25-point outing, while Dylan Penn scored 20 points, bolstered by an 8-for-8 effort at the foul line, and three other Catamounts reached double figures. Robin Duncan put up 15 points, nine assists and five rebounds, Matt Veretto sank a trio of 3s and tallied 15 points and Aaron Deloney added 10 points for UVM, which shot 31 of 49 from the field (63.3%) and splashed 10 of its 14 3s in the opening 20 minutes.

"We’ve been really good offensively the last seven games when we started this streak," Becker said. "The staff has done a great job of tweaking what we do to put guys in different positions to play to their strengths."

UVM led 46-29 at the break and withstood Lowell star Everette Hammond's 29-point second half. The margin, though, never dipped to single digits in the second stanza as UVM avenged Lowell's 80-65 win from last month.

"We were able to generate some good shots early and we were knocking them down," Penn said. "Guys were hitting shots, we were getting to the rim, we were creating our opportunities and taking advantage of them."

Sullivan's second of back-to-back triples gave UVM a 21-12 lead out of the 12-minute media timeout. After a Cam Morris III (10 points) basket, Veretto buried a 3-pointer via a Deloney steal and assist to give UVM its first double-digit lead, 24-14, with 10:28 before the break.

Later in the half, Kam Gibson found a cutting Duncan for an uncontested layup and Duncan set a high screen for Sullivan to bury his fifth triple of the half for a 37-23 advantage. A pair of Veretto foul shots gave UVM its 17-point halftime lead.

Out of the break, a pick-and-roll freed Veretto for a 3-pointer. Sullivan followed with a driving layup and a post finish, and Penn spun into the lane for a righty hook for a 55-30 margin 2:02 into the second half.

"We have guys who can spread the floor and shoot it," Penn said. "When they are hitting shots, you gotta respect them and that gives opportunities to get to the basket."

The UVM advantage reached as high as 26 points, 70-44, when Deloney uncorked a long, overhead outlet to Sullivan for a fast-break dunk at 11:59.

Lowell scored 52 second-half points and closed the deficit to 11 points on three occasions. But overall, Becker was pleased with his team's performance, and its run over the last two-plus months. UVM is 13-3 since Dec. 1.

"I’m not worried about what happened in November," Becker said. "We are playing good basketball and we are a good basketball team."

Ayinde Hikim scored 18 points for the River Hawks. UVM plays host to New Hampshire on Wednesday night. A win over UNH would inch UVM one step closer to its seventh straight regular-season crown.

"There is a lot of basketball left. The parity — every game is hard in league especially this year. But we understand that we control our own destiny and the way these guys came out (Saturday) was really inspiring," Becker said. "It was really impressive."

Said Sullivan: "(Becker) has always said that homecourt advantage is the most important thing for playoffs. We have to make sure we finish the job here and win the regular-season title."

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont men's basketball: Catamounts shoots past UMass Lowell