Long's late 3-pointer caps big comeback in Vermont men's basketball's win at Brown

Exactly one month after a dramatic win over Yale, TJ Long and the University of Vermont men's basketball team pulled off another comeback victory with a long 3-pointer.

While not as improbable as their last-second victory vs. the Bulldogs, the Catamounts wiggled out of trouble thanks to Long's go-ahead 3-point swish with 1:21 to play, escaping Providence with a 71-70 triumph over Brown during Tuesday's nonconference finale.

After trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, Long's triple was Vermont's first lead of the contest. The Catamounts (10-5), who tied a program record for nonconference wins in a season, sealed the victory when Brown's Nana Owusu-Anane missed a point-blank layup in the final seconds via an in-bounds play.

"He’s shown that he can make a big play in the last couple minutes of a game. He did deliver again tonight," said UVM coach John Becker of Long.

Matt Veretto paced Vermont with 16 points on 7 of 13 shooting, Long and Ileri Ayo-Faleye each added 11 points and TJ Hurley tossed in 10.

For Brown (4-11), Kino Lilly, Jr dropped 18 points and Owusu-Anane (16), Kalu Anya (11) and Felix Kloman (10) also reached double figures for the hosts.

The red-hot Bears squad pushed to a 17-point lead, 42-25, at the 4-minute mark of the first half. Then Vermont uncorked a 9-0 spurt to close the half. Veretto sank three layups while Sam Alamutu's block and three-point play in transition highlighted the run.

In the second half, Vermont stayed within striking distance despite Veretto getting into foul trouble and picking up his fourth foul at the 15-minute mark. Becker said the unit of Ayo-Faleye, Hurley, Jace Roquemore, Brenton Mills and Nick Fiorillo helped the Cats trim the deficit before the full starting lineup returned to the floor for the final stretch.

"I thought the group in the second half that led us back was our best defensive group tonight," Becker said.

After Lilly's trey gave Brown a 68-63 margin with 3:25 to play, Ayo-Faleye responded with his own triple and then got a floater to fall to level the contest at the 2-minute mark.

Aaron Cooley returned the advantage to Brown, 70-68, before Long rose for his game-winning shot. The transfer from Fairfield took a feed from Hurley with the shot clock close to expiring and buried his deep 3-pointer on the wing in front of the Vermont bench.

To seal the game, Ayo-Faleye had a block at the rim in the final minute and Brown's inbounds play nearly produced a last-second layup from Owusu-Anane, who couldn't get the roll off the window with Fiorillo closely guarding in the paint.

Vermont also played Tuesday without guard Shamir Bogues (lower body injury) for the third straight game. Bogues has missed five games overall this season.

"This has been good for us ... to have some other guys have an opportunity to show what they have," Becker said. "So when we bring (Bogues) back, we'll be better for it."

The Catamounts return to action Saturday afternoon at home when they open their title defense in America East vs. Maine.

Women's hockey

Vermont 6, St. Michael's 0

V: Evelyne Blais-Savoie 2G, 1A. Natalie Mlynkova 1G, 2A. Ezra Oien 1G. Kaylee Lewis 1G. Maddy Skelton 1G. Ellie Simmons 9 saves.

SMC: Annika Lavender 47 saves.

Note: Vermont (9-8-1) racked up 87 shots and won 39 of 53 faceoffs to cruise past St. Michael's (0-20).

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont men's basketball: Cats rally at Brown in nonconference finale