Estero, FL – Freshman Eli Pemberton had 21 points and sophomore Justin Wright-Foreman added 16 points, but it was enough as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team fell to Vermont, 87-73, on Tuesday evening in the Gulf Coast Showcase semifinals at the Germain Arena.

With the loss, Hofstra falls to 2-3 on the season. Vermont improved to 5-1 with the victory.

It was all Vermont in the opening 20 minutes as the Catamounts opened up a 21-lead at the break as they shot 59% (17-29) from the field and hit on six three-pointers. Ernie Duncan led the way for UVM with 19 points and five three-pointers.

Two free throws from Wright-Foreman would make it 19-15 in favor of Vermont with 9:07 left in the first stanza. At that point, Vermont used an 11-0 scoring run to open up a 30-15 advantage with 6:56 to play before intermission. Vermont led by as many as 22 in the first half before settling in for the 21-point advantage.

A three-pointer from Anthony Lamb made it 56-32 early in the second half before Hofstra began to mount a bit of a rally. A trifecta from senior Brian Bernardi would kick-start a 14-3 Pride run that made it 59-46 in favor of the Catamounts with less than 12 minutes left in regulation. Bernardi had five points during the run, while junior Rokas Gustys added four.

Vermont was able to make it a 17-point game (67-50) at the 9:06 mark before a personal 5-0 scoring run from Wright-Foreman closed the gap to 67-55 with 8:19 to play.

That would be as close as Hofstra would get though as the Pride's spirted second half rally fell short and Vermont earned the win to move on to the championship game.

Gustys led all players with 11 rebounds and added eight points.

Duncan finished with 33 points for the Catamounts. Payton Henson added 16 points and eight rebounds, while Kurt Steidl posted 10 points.

Hofstra is back in action on Wednesday at 5 p.m. when it will face either Houston or South Dakota in the third place game of the Gulf Coast Showcase.

NOTES
- With a win today, Vermont broke a deadlock in the series and now leads the all-time series, 11-10. The two schools were former rivals in the America East Conference.  
- With 21 points in the game, freshman Eli Pemberton continues his impressive string of reaching double figures in each of the Pride's first five games. He matches Antoine Agudio (2004-05) as the only two players to do that in the program's Colonial Athletic Association (since 2001) era.
- Junior Hunter Sabety had seven points. That marked a new season-high for the transfer from Tufts.