Hot Shooting and Stout Defense Propel Knights Over Bears 74-64
November 21, 2011

Hot Shooting and Stout Defense Propel Knights Over Bears 74-64

Erwin drops career high 25 points on 10-17 shooting

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The Vermont Tech Men's Basketball team pulled off a 74-64 decision to USCAA foes St. Joeph's Brooklyn on Monday evening to extend their record to 6-0 in this young season.

The Knights were led by freshman Tevon Erwin (Albany, NY) who had a career high 25 points on 10-for-17 shooting to go along with four blocks. Senior Kevin Carr (Westminster, MD) tallied 15 points and Junior Alex Tyrrell (Sydney, Australia) chipped in 11 points for the Knights who shot a remarkable 52% from the field (29-56).

St. Joseph's (1-3) was paced by Justin Gist who netted 24 points, 20 of those in the second half as the Bears continually battled to keep the game within reach. Freshmen David Louison and Stephan Dimitrjevitch had 12 points along with a game-high 16 rebounds and 10 points, 11 boards, repectively.

The Knights connected on their first three attempts to pull ahead early. A layup by Freshman Kevin Phillips (Troy, NY) started off the scoring for both teams, while Erwin hit on another layup and Carr connected on a 3 to put the Knights up 7-4. A jumper at the 15:31 mark gave the Bears their first lead of the game at 8-7, but sloppy play help to open up a 12-2 run for VTC. BY forcing four quick turnovers, the Knights found themselves with a 19-10 lead in just over a three and a half minute span.

Vermont Tech maintained their distance from the Bears for the remainder of the first half, extending it by as many as 12 points before taking a nine point advantage into the locker room, 32-23.

St. Joseph's, however, would not go away, as the Bears opened the second period on a 12-3 run over the first four minutes, knotting the game at 35. A pair of Dimitrjevitch free throws with 14:49 gave the Bears their first lead of the second half, 39-38. With the game tied at 39, a three pointer gave the Bears a 42-39 lead, which would be their largest of the game.

From here the Vermont Tech defense, which held their opponents to a mere 35% shooting from the field and 20% shooting from 3 point range, took over and held the Bears without a field goal for the next five minutes. The Knights used impressive shooting, 57% in the second half, to slowly pull away from their hosts. St. Joseph's tried to chip away at the lead again, but on two separate occasions, an Erwin three-pointer extended the Knights lead to nine.

A Bears layup with 53 seconds remaining cut the deficit to six leaving hope for a comeback, but the Bears would be unable to score another field goal and the Knights put the game away from the free throw line.

For the game, the Knights dominated in the paint, outscoring the Bears 38-22. St. Joseph's won the battle of the boards, 44-37, including a 17-5 advantage on the offensive glass, although Junior Josh LIndsey (Palm Bay, FL) did his best on the boards, leading the Knights with 12 total rebounds.

The Knights are now 6-0, 3-0 on the season, and will next face Nashua CC on the road Wednesday, November 30th. Game time is set for 8pm, preceded by the women at 6.