The UVM men’s basketball team fell short to South Florida in the season opener this past Saturday, Nov. 12, losing 61-59 on the Bull’s home court.

South Florida jumped out to a 19-14 lead over the Catamounts with 8:57 to go in the first half but could not pull away.

Vermont quickly got back into the game, taking the lead by scoring nine straight points within the next two minutes, five of which came from first-year Four McGlynn — playing in his first game with Vermont.

The Bulls, however, were able to fight back to regain the lead and went into the locker room with a 31-27 halftime lead.

With the start of the second half, South Florida got the ball rolling the same way they did in the beginning of the game, increasing their lead to 49-37 with only 11:18 to go.

The Catamounts refused to go away as a 3-pointer from Glass cut their deficit to 55-51 with 6:35 remaining and McGlynn netted his fifth three of the game to trim the deficit to 58-56 with 2:44 left.

UVM was behind 60-57 when sophomore Luke Apfeld dropped in a layup before the Catamounts were forced to foul with 10.5 seconds on the clock. South Florida’s Shaun Noriega then hit one of two free throws to set up a UVM possession with the score sitting at 61-59.

After a UVM timeout with 4.3 seconds McGlynn drove the ball aggressively through the interior of the Bulls’ defense and was able to attempt a layup that rimmed out. Matt Glass tipped in the missed layup but it fell through the rim after the final horn had sounded — the call was never reviewed using replay technology.

While no team wants to start their season with a loss, the Catamounts were able to play an extremely close game against a South Florida team that plays in one of the best college basketball conferences in the country, the Big East.

Despite Vermont’s extreme size disadvantage they were able to out rebound South Florida 34-32 and led in bench scoring 31-3.

Offensively the Catamounts were led by McGlynn, who finished with 17 points — 6-9 from the floor and 5-7 from three-point range.

Sophomore Brian Voelkel recorded 11 rebounds and eight assists and sophmore Luke Apfeld scored 10 points and recorded nine rebounds.