The women’s basketball head coach was ejected from a game Thursday night after Vermont was charged with two technical fouls.
Vermont continued their losing streak, losing to the University of Maine Feb. 22 with a final score of 79-47 and Stony Brook University three days later, 55-49.
Head coach Chris Day was told to leave the game by the referee near the end of the first half.
“Committing a flagrant two personal or flagrant two technical foul shall lead to an automatic ejection,” according to the NCAA women’s basketball rule book.
“The referees were kind of moody to start, so that was a bit weird, but assistant head coach Alisa Kresge took over and she’s great,” junior forward Candice Wright said.
Day said his ejection from the game was a contributing factor to the team’s performance.
“The Maine game was such an anomaly,” Day said. “When I got ejected, [the game] was kind of deflating.”
The Catamounts’ defense was weak in the first half, and in many cases they left the basket wide open, allowing the Maine Black Bears to score.
“They liked to hit a lot of [3-pointers] and we needed to work on our communication and switching to stop them,” Wright said.
However, Maine scored a 3-pointer at the end of the half making the score 21-43. At halftime, there was discussion on how the Catamounts could make this a closer game.
“We needed to chip away point by point—since there wasn’t going to be a 20-point play—and to improve our defense,” Wright said.
Even though the Maine game ended in a loss, there was optimism of bouncing back to try to win the Sunday, Feb. 25 game against Stony Brook.
“These kids have really good character, and we bounced back with two really good practices,” Day said.
The game started with more energy from the Catamounts.
“We basically stopped their best leading scorer, but our defense was the main success during the first half,” first-year Kianna Funderburk said.
Day also added how the offense was instrumental during the first half.
“I thought we executed our offense very well, even throughout the game,” Day said.
The Catamounts led Stony Brook the entire half until the last thirty seconds when it was tied 23. Stony Brook ended the first half with a 26-23 lead.
“Stony Brook did pick up their defense, and we missed a couple tough shots,” Funderburk said.
The Catamounts never got their lead back during the second half, making the final score 55-49.
“We made a little push at the end with a couple of steals, but the Stony Brook point guard was so quick and left us in the dust when we tried to trap her,” Day said.
Day said that the team was having trouble with their shooting, which carried over into the second half.
“We’ve done every single drill to get out of it,” Day said. “I just don’t know mentally how to fight them through it, but we just can’t make a shot.”
“The 49 points, that’s just not who we are,” he said.
The loss came on the Catamounts’ senior day. This was the last home game for seniors Katie Lavelle, Kristina White, Sydney Smith and Rachel Merrill.
The Catamounts play their next game Saturday, March 3 against University at Albany in the first round of the America East Championship.