Under the Radar Game of the Day: Vermont at New Hampshire

Vermont at New Hampshire, 1:00 PM Eastern, espn3

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The battle for the America East championship is on in full force this afternoon as all State offices have been closed and a national holiday declared for the first of two regular season matchups between the Vermont Catamounts and the Team of the People, the New Hampshire Wildcats.  The host Wildcats enter play today with an overall record of 11-6 and a conference record of 2-1, just one game behind Vermont and Stony Brook in the loss column for first place.  Since losing their conference opener against Stony Brook, UNH has won at Albany and picked up a win at home against Binghamton.  Star player Tanner Leissner had one of his roughest games of his career against the Bearcats last time out, only scoring 2 points.  However, his teammates were able to pick up the slack, led by 23 from Daniel Dion and a double-double from Iba Camara.  With efforts like that today, the Wildcats have a great shot to hand Vermont their first league loss of the season and serve notice that they do intend to contend for the regular season championship.

Vermont enters play today at 14-5 overall and 4-0 in early conference play including a solid home win last time out against a much-improved UMBC team.  Trae Bell-Haynes led the team in scoring in that win, dropping 20 points.  Kurt Steidl added 11 points and 9 rebounds, narrowly missing the double-double.  The Catamounts enter today’s game with the top RPI, KenPom and Sagarin ratings in the conference, and have a chance, if they can run through the league during the regular season, to land a respectable seed in the NCAA Tournament.  However, that is much easier said than done and the New Hampshire Wildcats should be ready for them today.

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