catamount

Catamounts clocked by an Orange crush - Boston Globe

There was no way Vermont could turn back the clock to 2005 of last night.

The Catamounts faced a hostile crowd as they tried to repeat their fabled upset of Syracuse 5 years ago in Worcester, this time in the unenviable position of a 16th seed. The No. 16s are 0-104 in the era of the 64- and 65-team NCAA fields.

The Orange (29-4) will meet No. 8 Gonzaga here tomorrow at 12:10 p.m. after the Bulldogs held off Florida State, 67-60. Vermont, which equaled its school record for victories, finishes at 25-10.

With the crowd of 18,948 roaring, the Orange exploded to a 35-10 first-half lead and survived a 15-2 Vermont run that pulled the Catamounts within 37-25 at the break. Syracuse quickly put Vermont away in the second with four 3-pointers in the first four minutes.

“Walking into the arena just to see how huge it was and that it’s going to be packed with Syracuse fans, you realize you’re there and it’s not playing Stony Brook in a packed gym of 1,500 fans,’’ said Vermont senior Marqus Blakely, who had team highs of 17 points and nine rebounds in his final game. “This is the real deal. The fact is we went out there and never gave up. The scoreboard might show something different but I’m proud of all of my teammates.’’

“It was awful. I was worried about it all week,’’ said a smiling Vermont coach Mike Lonergan. “I felt like I was going to be at the Carrier Dome II. It was pretty impressive . . . Seeing all that orange, we got off to a bad start.’’

Even with 6-foot-9-inch Arinze Onuaku out with a leg injury, the Orange put five players in double figures with Wes Johnson leading way with 18 points and Scoop Jardine 14 off the bench.

Evan Fjeld was the only other Catamount in double figures with 13 points as Vermont shot just 23 of 66 from the field and 5 of 22 from 3-point range.

“Vermont is a good team. They played well all year,’’ Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “I just thought we played very well. Vermont made no mistakes. Usually we need to force some turnovers and we could not do that. But we forced their shooters out a little bit and made them take some tough shots.’’

The Joseph brothers, Maurice of Vermont and Kris of Syracuse, shared a big embrace and head taps in the center circle as they were introduced prior to tipoff. (Kris outscored his brother, 8-7).

Vermont scored the game’s first points on Maurice Joseph’s 3-pointer 68 seconds in but the Catamounts then went stone cold. Vermont missed its next nine shots as Syracuse went on an 11-0 run. It was 15-8 when the Orange blew it open as Jardine, who averages 8.8 points per game, poured in 11 to spearhead a 20-2 run that had the crowd in party mode with a 35-10 lead.

Blakely was scoreless until canning a jumper with 5:26 left in the half. But he finished with 9 points, including a trio of rim-rocking dunks that had the Vermont fans out of their seats as the Catamounts closed within 12 at the break.