UMBC

Vestal, NY--Freshman guard Brian Hodges shattered his season high and posted a UMBC team single game scoring high this season with 28 points to lead the #9 seeded Retrievers (11-17) to a 78-73 victory over #8 New Hampshire (9-19) in the first round of the America East Conference Tournament.

The Retrievers advance to take on top-seeded Vermont (21-6) tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. That game can be heard live on umbcretrievers.com, and a delayed broadcast will be on ESPN 1300.

After falling behind 24-17 midway through the first half, UMBC went on a 21-6 run, capped by a Seth Davis jumper as the Retrievers picked up a 38-30 lead. UMBC took a 42-35 lead at intermission, hitting 15 of 30 shots from the floor in the first half.

Freshman guard Michael Knight hit a pair of three-point goals and helped built the lead to 14 points at 62-48. UMBC still led by 65-53 with 9:40 to play, when UNH went on a 9-2 run to trim the margin to 67-62. But Hodges drilled a three-point goal to restore UMBC’s lead to eight points, and after Blagov Janev matched Hodges’ trey, senior center Andrew Feeley and Hodges converted on consecutive possessions to get the UMBC advantage to 74-65 with 2:15 to play.

The Wildcats would not go away and scored six straight points to make the contest a one-possession game at 74-71 with 38 seconds left. But Hodges sank a pair of pressure free throws and after UNH’s Ben Sturgill scored inside, the Retriever freshman sealed the win with two more free throws with 2.8 seconds to play.

Reserves Knight and Davis scored 11 points each for UMBC, and Feeley added 12 points and 9 rebounds. For Davis, it was a season high, while senior guard Rob Gogerty posted a season best 10 assists and moved into fourth place on UMBC’s all-time assist list.

The Retrievers played Vermont tough this season, falling 80-70 in Baltimore on February 2, and dropping a 66-61 decision last Thursday on the Catamounts’ “Senior Day” in Burlington.

Andrew Feeley had UMBC's other 20-point game of the season, with 20 points at Maryland-Eastern Shore on December 1. Hodges' previous high was 17 points in his first collegiate start on the same Binghamton court on February 16. He has scored in double figures in all five of his starts (the last five games), averaging 16.7 ppg in that stretch.