UMBC 66 Vermont 64
UMBC shot 70% in the first half and executed down the stretch to end Vermont's 12 game win streak. The Retrievers continue to be a thorn in the Cats side as they put together their best game of the season. Coming into the game UMBC was one of the worst shooting teams in the country. On paper with Vermont being one of the best defensive teams in the country it looked like offense would be hard to come by. With 10 threes combined in the first 8 minutes that was clearly not the case. It was a strange game from start to finish with UMBC only taking 39 total shots in the game (to Vermont's 55). Thirty- nine shots is a crazy low number of attempts. Since Ryan Odom has taken over UMBC is the king of finding strange and different ways to win games. All around college basketball streaks ended left and right. Baylor, San Diego State, and Gonzaga also saw their long win streaks come to an end. These are the dog days of the conference season and it often leads to odd results. Vermont definitely looked like they had the "we just got a big win" hangover. UMBC had more at stake as they fight to climb the standings and the Cats didn't play with a sense of urgency. This was the first game in a while where Vermont's bench mob didn't have much of an impact on the game. Ryan Odom is an excellent coach and is able to get his players to execute their game plan effectively and play loose as the underdog. Looking around the America East over the last few games, there have been many upsets with the bottom half of the league fighting for playoff positioning. Vermont had escaped a few close calls on the road to avoid the "bad loss" in conference play. The crazy amount of winning over the last 4 years has made Vermont feel invincible or impervious to the "bad loss". That is honestly an unreasonable expectation. Sometimes is isn't going to be Vermont's night and last night was an example of that. That certainly doesn't excuse the lackluster play but is serves as some perspective for just how hard it is to play at a high level game in and game out over the long college basketball season. Vermont historically responds very well after losses and these late season losses can be galvanizing as the team is reminded about the little things that need to be executed in order to win games. This loss is going to be more about how the next two games go. Is this a blip on the screen and serves as a reminder about never losing focus? Or is it indicative of something larger? The Cats have a week to find out as they prepare for their second chance to win the regular season title Saturday night at UMass Lowell.
