Vermont at UMBC, 5:00 PM, espn3
Groundhog Day was two and a half weeks ago, but our Under the Radar Game of the Day certainly feels like déjà vu all over again as, for the second straight night, we are featuring the America East battle between Vermont and UMBC. The Vermont Catamounts (10-3 overall and in conference) picked up the huge 80-71 road win on national TV last night to move one game up on UMBC (13-5 overall, 9-4 in conference) in the league standings. Given that UMBC holds the tiebreaker between the two teams, the winner of tonight’s regular season finale for the two teams will clinch the #1 seed in the conference tournament and the right to host the championship game should they meet there on March 13.
Vermont used an impressive balanced attack to take down UMBC last night, as Ryan Davis (21), Stef Smith (20), Ben Shungu (20) and Isaiah Powell (11) all scored in double figures. Shungu added 8 rebounds to lead the team. Vermont was also impressive in their shooting, hitting 10 of 21 from 3-point range and going a perfect 12-for012 at the charity stripe. UMBC was led by 23 points and 7 rebounds from R.J. Eytle-Rock, followed by 12 points from L.J. Owens and 11 from Keondre Kennedy off the bench. 44.8% field goal shooting, 8-for-22 from long range and 7 missed free throws proved to be too much for the Retrievers to overcome. They will certainly need to shoot better and try to slow down Vermont’s long-range scoring if they want tonight’s win and the top seed in the America East tournament.