DAYTON, Ohio -- Four McGlynn scored 18 points off the bench to lead Vermont to its second-ever NCAA men's basketball victory, a 71-59 win over Lamar in the tournament's first round on Wednesday evening at University of Dayton Arena. The win is America East's seventh in the NCAA tournament and first since 2005.
Winners of 15 of their last 16 games, the Catamounts will now travel to Greensboro, N.C. for a date with top-seeded North Carolina in the NCAA second round on Friday at 4:10 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on TBS.
Vermont (24-11), which got to the NCAA tournament by winning its fifth America East title since 2005 on Saturday, controlled the pace of Wednesday's game from the first media timeout on. The Catamounts fell behind 8-4 early, but got a spark from its bench immediately as McGlynn tallied 10 of his points in an eight-minute stretch. McGlynn capped the 13-0 run with a jumper that gave Vermont a 22-12 lead with 8:26 left in the first half.
The Catamounts, which took a 30-21 lead into halfime, grew their advantage to 16 just 4:14 into the second half on Matt Glass' short jumper in the lane. The basket was the fourth straight by UVM in the paint, where it outscored Lamar (23-12) 32-26 in the game. The Cardinals would get within seven as Miles Anthony, who had 14 points, canned a three-pointer with 9:18 to go to cut UVM's lead to 52-45 with 9:18 left.
But, Vermont, which committed just five turnovers while dishing out 16 assists, took advantage of Lamar's over aggressiveness on defense and made 15-of-21 free throws in the second half to seal the NCAA win.
Matt Glass (11 points) and Sandro Carissimo (10) joined McGlynn in twin figures for the Catamounts, who shot 50 percent (25-of-50) for the game while holding South Florida to a 33 percent (20-of-60) clip. Mike James and Devon Lamb each had 16 points to pace Lamar.
The game was decided by bench play as Vermont's reserves outscored Lamar's 35-5.
"I'm really excited and thrilled for our guys to be able to get this win in the NCAA Tournament" said Vermont coach John Becker, whose 24 wins are the most by a first-year coach in program history. "The guys really executed on both ends of the court. I thought our guys were very composed and handled it great. We really executed on both ends of the court and stayed with our game plan.
Vermont, which defeated Syracuse in the NCAA first round in 2005, join Northeastern as America East programs with multiple NCAA wins. The Huskies picked up wins in 1981, '82 and '84. Siena (1989) and Drexel (1996) have the other wins.