UMBC

Boston, Mass.—The UMBC men’s basketball team fought valiantly, but top-seeded Vermont (25-6) defeated the fifth-seeded Retrievers (12-19), 72-63 in the semi-finals of the America East Tournament. The Catamounts will host the winner of the Albany-Boston University semi-final.

In his final collegiate contest, senior forward Mike Housman was named UMBC’s America East Player of the Game as he posted team highs of 20 points and eight rebounds.

A key moment of the game occurred in the late stages of the first half as a Housman layup gave UMBC a 29-27 lead with 2:47 to play. But the Catamounts scored the final eight points of the half, including a banked-in three-pointer at the intermission horn by Mike Trimboli, which gave the Catamounts a 35-29 lead at the break.

Vermont would build a 12-point second half advantage at 57-45 with 7:48 remaining. But UMBC would not wilt, as Brian Hodges hit a three-pointer to bring the Retrievers to within 58-53 with 5:13 remaining. After a Trimboli traveling violation, Hodges drew a foul on Vermont’s Martin Klimes and sunk both free throws to cut the deficit to 58-55 with 4:38 to play.

But the regular season champions came right back, as Trimboli hit a driving layup to start a 6-0 run. Housman gave UMBC a glimmer of hope as he cut the gap to 64-59 with 43 seconds left, but Vermont hit all three one-and-one free throw opportunities in the final 41 seconds to stave off the upset bid.

Housman hit nine of 14 shots from the floor and five of his eight caroms were on the offensive glass. Freshman Justin Fry sparked UMBC in the second half with his first two three-point field goals of the season and finished with 12 points, while sophomore guard Jay Greene bolstered his strong tournament resume with 11 points and six assists. In his final collegiate game, senior guard Chris Pugh scored six point and added a game-high seven assists.

UMBC hit just 12 of 35 second half field goal attempts and were 23 of 59 (39.0%) for the game. The Retrievers committed only six turnovers and hauled in 16 offensive rebounds. Vermont hit 26 of 54 from the floor (48.1%), and 15 of 18 from the charity stripe.

The 12 wins were UMBC’s most since winning 20 games in the 2001-02 season.