Burlington, Vt. ? Courtnay Pilypaitis finished with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists as Vermont rolled to a 48-32 victory over UAlbany in an America East Conference women's basketball contest at Patrick Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, in UVM's Pink Zone game. Despite holding the Catamounts to their lowest point total since they suffered a 58-47 defeat to first-place Boston University on Jan. 10, the Great Danes fell into a tie for eighth place in the league standings with Maine.

After 6-foot-4 senior center Alissa Sheftic scored the game's initial basket on a short jumper, UAlbany (3-20, AE 1-9) scored eight consecutive points to take its first lead. Tiffanie Johnson finished a conventional three-point play, Britney McGee hit a long shot from behind the arc and Janea Aiken converted two free throws during the stretch.

            Vermont (14-10 AE 8-3), which was picked to win the league title in the preseason coaches poll, responded by scoring 17 unanswered points. Paced by senior forward Kelli Poles' seven points, the Catamounts drove down the lane for short jump shots and also shrugged off double teams by the Great Dane defense to find players who made open layups to regain the lead.

Aiken ended the run when she nailed UAlbany's first field goal in over 10 minutes to pull the Great Danes within nine. However, the Catamounts scored seven of the half's final 13 points to take a 26-16 lead after 20 minutes of action.

Verrmont blew the game open by netting 16 of the first 22 points to begin the second half. The lead ballooned to as many as 20 with 9:40 left to play in regulation before Aiken converted two shots from the charity stripe. A layup by Johnson trimmed the lead down to 15 at 44-29 with 3:58 on the clock, but that was the closest the Great Danes would come the rest of the way.

In addition to Pilypaitis, the league's reigning player of the year, Vermont was led by May Kotsopoulos, last season's defensive player of the year, and Poles. Kotsopoulos was the only player to score in double figures for both clubs, netting 10 points to go along with seven steals. Poles contributed nine points and 11 rebounds off the bench.

UAlbany was led by Britney McGee, who scored a team-high eight points and defensively did not allow Verrmont's Amy Rosenkrantz to net a field goal. Rosenkrantz, a senior who recently reached the 1,000-point plateau and was an all-conference second team pick last season, only recorded two points at the free throw line after being fouled on a loose ball in the game's final minutes.

In the physical contest which featured 41 fouls between the clubs, the Catamounts outshot the Great Danes, 32.7 percent (18-55) to 18.9 percent (10-53) from the floor and 13.3 percent (2-15) to 6.7 percent (1-15) from behind the arc. UAlbany outshot Vermont, 55 percent (11-20) to 50 percent (10-20) at the free throw line on a cold afternoon of shooting for both squads.

“Defensively, I could not have asked for a better effort,” said head coach Trina Patterson, whose squad held Pilypaitis to single-digit scoring for the first time this season against a conference opponent. “Our offense was just tragic. We could not buy a bucket. However, to hold that team to 48 points when they average 67, and shutting out the player of the year shows that we can stop people.”