Knights Fall to Undefeated Valor Christian

Ave Maria University, Florida -

The Vermont Tech Men's Basketball team dropped their first game of the new year to Valor Christian College of Columbus, Ohio. The USCAA #5 Warriors bested the #2 ranked Knights by a final of 87-79 in the first round of the Ave Maria University USCAA Classic Tournament in Florida.

Although the Knights won the second half by a score of 43-41 they could not overcome a slow start that left them with a ten point deficit at halftime. The Warriors jumped out to a 7-0 advantage within the first two minutes of the game, and after that every time VTC clawed their way back in Valor would go on another run to extend their lead. Senior Kevin Carr (Westminster, MD) nailed a 3 pointer to bring the score back to within two at the fifteen minute mark, but then Valor went on a 12-2 run to again make the lead a comfortable ten. Despite Carr hitting for 13 of his 21 points in the first half and Junior Alex Tyrrell (Sydeney, Australia) contributing 8 of his eventual 16 Vermont Tech could simply not close the gap on their opponent.

The second half saw more of the same, with the Knights and Warriors exchanging runs to bring the game closer and then further. Freshman Lucas Dutil (Barre, VT) hit on 3 of 5 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free throw line to try to spark the Knights, he scored 9 of his 11 points in the half. Freshman Tevon Erwin (Albany, NY) was a tremednous asset under the basket, grabbing 10 total rebounds and finishing off the double-double with 16 points, 12 of which came in the second period. At its largest point, Valor led in the second half by 18. The Warriors were led with 27 points and 9 rebounds from Matthew Mobley and 20 points and 8 rebounds from Adam Cunningham.

Vermont Tech is now 11-2 on the season, and has two remaining games in Florida. The first is Thursday the 5th versus the Apprentice School of Virginia, withe the last game coming on Friday the 6th against the hosts of Ave Maria University. Both games will be live webstreamed at http://www.amuathletics.com/news/default/75/845/