The men's basketball team finished its vacation schedule with an 82-70 loss to the Vermont Catamounts Monday night in Burlington.
After falling behind by as many as 16 points and fighting back several times, the Big Green took a 48-46 lead with 13 minutes to play.
But it was all Vermont from there, as the Catamounts dominated the remaining minutes.
"Once we got ahead we stopped doing what got us there. They hit five or six buckets in a row because we got a little relaxed on defense," said sophomore guard Sea Lonergan.
The game, the team's ninth away game in ten starts, brought the Big Green's record to 3-7, mediocre by some standards but phenomenal compared to last season's 1-13 start.
The record is more impressive because the squad lost four seniors, including starters Gregg Frame and Stan Kowalewski to graduation.
Lonergan, last year's Ivy League rookie of the year, leads the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game.
His performance in the Big Green's first four games, losses to St. Johns (63-93) and Portland (58-80) followed by victories over Central Connecticut (81-75 OT) and Middlebury (97-53), earned him Ivy Leage co-player of the week. His four-game total was 72 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists and six steals.
Senior forward and team captain Jamie Halligan has had a hot hand all season, draining half of his three-point attempts and leading the team in minutes played.
Halligan is also second on the team in points scored (15.8 per game), shots blocked and steals.
He played the entire game en route to 26 points in the team's heartbreaking 67-61 overtime loss to Fairleigh Dickinson, a game that saw neither team hit more than a third of its shots.
Freshman guard P.J. Halas has been a pleasant surprise, making the Ivy League honor roll during the same week. Halas averages 18 minutes and three assists per game coming off the bench.
His game-tying basket with three seconds left sent the Central Connecticut game in overtime.The Green began its Ivy League schedule Dec. 13 in Cambridge, trying to avenge last year's two close losses to Harvard. But Lonergan's 21 points weren't enough, and the Crimson prevailed 58-55.
Lonergan said having an inexperienced team, often starting four sophomores, and having so many away games has hurt the team.
"The team was playing really well. We lost 2 ovetime games- one by 3 one by 4-all on the road," he said. "We're still young; I think we're still learning how to win."
League play begins in earnest this weekend with Princeton on Friday and Pennsylvania on Saturday; both games at home.
"We think we can hold our own; we're just going to come out and play as hard as we can," Lonergan said. "We feel like we can win."
