By john.jeansonne@newsday.com
"You can't score, you can't win," Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell said.
The America East Tournament champ, Vermont (10-3, 1-0) was put in something of a vise by Stony Brook's tireless defenders, falling 16 points shy of its league-high scoring average and five percentage points short of the most efficient field-goal shooting in the conference.
But, for Stony Brook (6-7, 1-1) - which twice beat Vermont last year on its way to the regular-season conference title - scoring was an even bigger problem. The home team could conjure a mere 21 points in the second half and made only 33 percent of its shots.
Though it opened a couple of seven-point leads in the first half, Stony Brook last had the advantage at 43-42 with 6:04 to play. Vermont, led by senior Evan Fjeld's 17 points and freshman Brian Voelkel's 11 points and 11 rebounds, produced just enough offensive punch down the stretch.
"We did a great job defensively," Pikiell said. "Unfortunately we struggled on the secondary way to score. We didn't get to the foul line, we didn't get second shots and we didn't have any offensive rebounds."
Stony Brook hit all seven of its free throws, but Vermont tried 23 and made 16. Vermont won the contest on the boards 38-32 as Stony Brook had only nine offensive. Another glaring statistic was junior Bryan Dougher's point total - seven, all in the second half - compared to his 14.3 average. And one clear pivot point was sophomore Marcus Rouse's foul on a three-point attempt by Vermont's Simeon Marsalis with six seconds left in the half and Stony Brook up by five.
"It's a lapse," Pikiell said. "We guarded [Marsalis] like he was Dwyane Wade and he hadn't hit a three all year. But Rouse [who led Stony Brook's scoring with a career-high 19 points] is trying. I don't fault the effort, but at that time we didn't need that. Every possession is huge for us."
Vermont's mascot is the Catamount, a mountain cat sometimes called a lynx, and for a while its players' wayward shots made them the Missing Lynx. In the end, though, Stony Brook missed more.
