The cheering for Orleans native and star Vermont Catamounts guard Courtnay Pilypaitis began before the starting lineups were announced, and continued well past the final buzzer.
The Catamounts marched off the floor with an 82-60 win over the Carleton Ravens varsity women’s basketball team Aug. 27 in the Ravens’ first exhibition game of the season.
And why not?
It was Pilypaitis, after all, who had her fingerprints all over the lopsided victory, one that the top-ranked American East NCAA squad should not have been capable of, considering only five of her teammates made the trip across the border with her.
The St. Peter’s high school grad scored 17 points, along with a team-high of five steals and 37 minutes of playing time in the 40-minute game.
“We did really well in our summer training and we came in and just were ready to go,” Pilypaitis said. “At the end, our shots were probably looking a little short because of our legs, but we felt pretty good out there.”
“We try and run a lot but with six players we probably couldn’t do as much,” she said. “We had a few good transition buckets and we did a couple things we need to work on, but it was a good first game.”
The Ravens could not compete with the aggressive defensive game played by the Catamounts, who seemed to figure out everything the Carleton team could throw at them offensively by the beginning of the second half.
Vermont continually stole the ball and swiftly moved it to offense resulting in easy, uncontested points throughout the last 20 minutes of the game.
The Catamounts led 40-29 at the beginning of the second half and 50-31just three minutes later.  The lead only grew from then on.
Fifth-year Ravens forward Ines Jelic led the hustle on both the defensive and offensive ends for Carleton, scoring eight points while raking up two assists in 28 minutes of play.
Jelic said the squad committed a few too many errors during the game, but played “pretty good” considering it was the young team’s first game.
“There were some lapses that we had in our defense and our offense, like not taking care of the ball at times, or missing some rotations defensively,” Jelic said. “But I think that with a lot of new girls on the team, that stuff will come as we progress and mature as a team and as everyone gets more comfortable in their roles.”
Ravens coach Taffe Charles said he was “disappointed” with the game and hoped they could do a little better, but with a new bench coming in the result was expected.
“We’re integrating a couple new kids and a few kids who had a minimal role last year will play a bigger role,” Charles said.
“It’s part of the process. I was hoping we’d do a little bit better today, but hopefully we’ll do better tomorrow,” he said. q