Vermont snaps men's basketball's winning streak at four

Friday, December 10

Providence, R.I.

7:00 PM

Brown University

8-5,0-0Ivy League

Vermont

7-4,0-0America East

Vermont

Brown

Vermont snaps men's basketball's winning streak at four

12/10/2021 10:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown men's basketball team's winning streak came to an end at four games Friday night after falling to Vermont 70-65 at the Pizzitola Sports Center.

The Bears, who trailed for most of the night, took a 65-64 lead with 30 seconds to play on a pair of Tamenang Choh free throws. The Catamounts would respond by scoring the game's final six points to claim the victory.

"I thought that was two good teams going at it," head coach Mike Martin said. "We have a lot of respect for Vermont and, obviously, they made a couple more plays than we did. I think both offenses settled in [in the second half] and found what was working. We had a couple defensive mishaps in the second half that are all on me as the coach. We tried to give them a couple different looks, but I made a mistake in the second half and they had back-to-back possessions where they scored too easy on us.

"I was very pleased with our offensive execution in the second half. The last possession when we were down three could have been better, but when we were down one, we got it right where we wanted, with the guy we wanted, right around the basket.

"In the first half, there are going to be a lot of plays we look at that where if we had been a little bit better earlier, we would have been in a better position. We fought all the way back, but just came up one play short."

After the Catamounts hit two free throws of their own to go back up 66-65, the Bears called a timeout with 26 seconds remaining. The "guy" Coach Martin mentioned was Choh who, with 14 seconds on the clock, powered his way to the basket and got off a left-handed layup that rimmed just out.

"The left-handed layup, that I make all the time, was just short on that one play," Choh said. "Like Coach said, he's [Isaiah Powell] a pretty decent defender, but I should have made that layup at the end of the day."

After Powell grabbed the rebound, the Bears had to foul and ended up not being able to get another shot off as Vermont would put the game away with a few more free throws.

On the night, Paxson Wojcik and Kino Lilly Jr. each had a team-high 13 points. Kimo Ferrari had a career-high 12 on a perfect 4-for-4 night from the three-point line. Choh contributed 11 points and seven rebounds, while Gainey had eight points, six rebounds, and a season-high four blocks.

While Brown did trail for the majority of the night, it remained within reach the entire time. Vermont never led by more than nine, and for the most part, it was a two-to-five-point game.

In the second half, the Bears did cut the Catamount lead to one on three occasions before taking the lead.

In the first half, Vermont led by five after six minutes and by nine after 11, but the Bears would quickly cut it back to a three-point deficit after back-to-back threes by Wojcik and Lilly. A Vermont three-pointer with 40 seconds left in the first half pushed the lead to eight, but a Gainey dunk with 14 on the clock brought it back to six to go into the half with Vermont up 29-23.

Brown is now off for the next 11 days as the Bears do not take the court again until Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. at Rhode Island.