The UVM men’s basketball team appeared to be struggling in the beginning to defeat the University of New Hampshire Wildcats at Patrick Gym Jan. 28.

As the first few minutes counted down, the game seemed all too familiar, flashing back to UVM’s prior loss against UNH earlier this season.

A lack of communication seemed evident in the players and the packed house remained silent.

Head coach John Becker agreed, saying, “Our defense was poor in the first half, but we had to buckle down and focus, and we did that the second half.”

Scoring first on a foul, UVM senior Matt Glass got the ball rolling. However, the Wildcats answered as Patrick Konan and Chandler Rhoads scored a joint four points in the next two minutes. In the next 10 minutes, the Wildcats dominated the court, scoring an additional 17 points while the Catamounts acquired a close 13.

With 10 minutes left, something snapped in the UVM players and order was restored. Thanks to captain Brendan Bald scoring an additional two points, the Catamounts seemed to have their fire back. Sophomore Josh Elbaum kept the momentum going as he matched Bald’s shot with eight minutes left in the half.

UVM trailed by two as the teams took 30 seconds for a timeout; however, once back, Bald again charged down the court wide open, dunking the ball as the crowd went wild. With this the teams were tied at 21 and after another timeout, sophomore Sandro Carissimo scored his first of the game, inching the Catamounts ahead.

With the half coming to a close, tensions grew as the lead switched back and forth another eight times within the next two minutes. Bald secured UVM’s dominance as, for the second time in the game, he charged down the court, unmanned, and dunked into the net.

With a mere 30 seconds left in the first half, it appeared that the score would be left in a tie at 40-40. That did not sit well with UVM’s Clancy Rugg, who shot and scored a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining, ending the half with a score of 43-40.

Konan was the first to score on a foul within the first 30 seconds of the second half, leaving the Wildcats trailing by one. Bald attempted two 3-pointers only to come up empty-handed, as Rhoads scored again for UNH, giving them the lead. Two minutes later, Alvin Abreu added to the Wildcat’s score by hitting a 3-pointer.

Bald and Elbaum, then, scored a total of 3-points for the Catamounts, Bald scoring one off a foul. The clock stopped at 15:47, giving the teams another timeout as UVM trailed 47-46.

In the next minute, Rhoads tried to ensure the Wildcats’ lead, storming down the court wide open. Glass came out again, scoring another two for the Cats, giving firt-year Four McGlynn the motivation to shoot for a 3-pointer. He was fouled in the process and scored UVM three points from the foul line, a place that seemed all to familiar to him in this game.

With the end of another timeout at 11:55, Apfeld was fouled and scored another two for UVM, giving the Catamounts the lead 53-49. Brian Voelkel added another three points for the Catamounts before the ball was turned over to the Wildcats, and Abreu scored yet again.

Once the ball was back in the hands of UVM, McGlynn scored for his seventh time of the game on another foul. The score continued to fluctuate over the next minute, leaving UNH trailing by three with another timeout.

At that point, Carissimo came back out on fire, racking up the score for the Cats with back-to-back points, causing the crowd to go wild. Thanks to Carissimo, the Wildcats were silenced, scoring only two more points the rest of the game.

“Throughout the game, I was building confidence. After that first shot I just knew that the rest were going to go in,” Carissimo said. “[The high scorer] just happened to be me this game, but next game it will be someone else.”

With five minutes left, UVM was unstoppable.

“We have a team concept; it’s not about one person,” McGlynn said of UVM’s success. “We win as a team and lose as a team.”

The Wildcats attempted multiple shots as the time continued to run out, only to come up short. This motivated UVM more as McGlynn scored yet again, bringing their lead to 73-60.

The Cats remained unsatisfied, as Glass and Apfeld scored a basket each, bringing the final score to 77-60 in favor of the men in green and gold.