Vermont tops New Hampshire in America East tourney 63-56

Mar 7, 2016, 10:01 pm

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Ethan O'Day scored 19 points with seven rebounds and third-seeded Vermont beat No. 4 seed New Hampshire 63-56 in an America East tournament semifinal on Monday night.

The Catamounts (21-12) will face top-seeded Stony Brook (25-6), which cruised past Hartford in the other semifinal, on Saturday in the title game.

Vermont trailed early, but a 12-0 run midway through the first half -- including consecutive 3-pointers by Ernie Duncan -- helped the Catamounts to a 32-21 lead at intermission.

New Hampshire got the deficit down to five after a 3-pointer by Daniel Dion 3 1/2 minutes into the second half, but Vermont slowly pulled away. A pair of free throws by O'Day, then one more from Cam Ward, gave the Cats their largest lead of 19 with 7:45 to go.

Kurt Steidl scored 13 points for Vermont and Duncan finished with 11.

Tanner Leissner led New Hampshire (19-12) with 28 points and 10 rebounds, his fourth double-double in six games.