UMBC 65 Vermont 62
On to the NIT.
Jairus Lyles hit a three pointer with .6 seconds left to win the America East championship for UMBC.
Lyles capped off an impressive 27 point effort, willing the Retrievers to victory. Another crushing postseason disappointment for this Vermont class. I absolutely love this group of players and it stinks that this is the way the great two year conference run had to end. The story of this game was about what Vermont did not do. They did not take shots. The Cats only took 38 shots in this game. Compare that to 56 for UMBC. That is a significant disparity and it included Vermont attempting only 2 three pointers in the second half. Two. That is just insane for a team who shoots such a strong percentage from three. Vermont's offense came to a screeching halt and it looked like no one wanted to take "the shot" down the stretch. The offense became one dimensional and UMBC defended it well. It was very strange to see this Vermont team get so far away from what they had been doing all season. Strong three point shooting was something that this group has hung their hat on all season. They took themselves out of the game by not giving their offense chances to score. UMBC executed their game plan very well and every time it looked like Vermont was going to pull away they had a response. The tension on the Vermont side was clear down the stretch. The Duncan brothers even had a very heated exchange which was very out of character. The pressure of all the expectations seemed to kind of creep up on the Cats down the stretch of the season as they were trying to finish off this historic run. They overcame so much this season and the pressure of their own sustained success finally caught up with them. While this loss hurts hopefully this group will be able to pull themselves off the mat and try to pull off an upset in the NIT. It is not the result that anyone wanted but I want this group to have another opportunity. It has been a joy to watch this group of players grow over their careers and they have brought this program to another level during their time. They play the game with an incredible passion and drive that we as fans might never see in another group of players. They have pushed the program forward and can continue to do so with an opportunity to go win a game in the NIT.
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