BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Vermont Catamounts are once again America East men’s basketball champions! The top-seeded Catamounts defeated second-seeded UMass Lowell, 72-59, in the 2023 #Jersey Mike’s America East men’s basketball championship game on Saturday morning at a sold out Patrick Gym.
After trailing at halftime, Vermont outscored UMass Lowell by 17 points in the second half to claim their second-straight America East title, fourth in five seasons and 10th since 2003.
Dylan Penn led Vermont with 21 points on way to earning Most Outstanding Player honors. He averaged 23.3 points per game over Vermont’s three wins. Penn was joined on the All-Championship team by teammates Aaron Deloney and Matt Veretto and UMass Lowell’s Allin Blunt and Everette Hammond.
Vermont’s Nick Fiorillo, a senior with a 3.70 GPA majoring in business administration, was the men’s basketball Elite 18 honoree for having the highest GPA among champion game participants.
Winners of 15-straight games, Vermont will learn its NCAA draw during the selection show on CBS on Sunday at 6 p.m.
How it Happened
- Both teams struggled offensively in the first half.
- After UMass Lowell went up 8-7 on a Abdoul Karim Coulibaly layup with 17:24 left, the River Hawks went over eight minutes without a field goal.
- During that stretch, Vermont went on a 9-1 run and opened up a 16-9 lead on Ileri Ayo-Faleye’s layup with 11:13 left in the half.
- UMass Lowell countered with a 20-5 spurt to open up a 29-21 advantage, capping the run on Cam Morris’ reverse layup with
- UVM cut the cap to four at halftime as UML led 29-25 at the break.
- The Catamounts scored the first five points of the second half to retake the lead 30-29.
- Hammond’s three with 13:09 left put UML back on top, 37-35.
- Vermont’s 6-0 run put it back on top 41-37 and they extended that advantage to 57-46 via a 10-3 spurt.
- Sullivan’s four-point play with 2:03 left iced the game for Vermont as it put them up 63-50.
By The Numbers
- Vermont held UMass Lowell to 37.7 percent shooting, 11 percentage points lower than their season average.
- The Catamounts shot 53.8 percent overall in the second half and 42.9 percent from three-point land to help them outscore the River Hawks by 17 in the second.
- Penn finished with a game-high 21 points.
- Three other Cats found double figures (Matt Veretto - 15, Finn Sullivan - 14, Aaron Deloney - 10).
- Allin Blunt’s 14 points paced UMass Lowell and Yuri Covington had 10 off the bench.
The History
- The title is Vermont’s 10th all-time, all since 2003. It’s their second straight and fourth in five years. The 10 crowns is the most in league history.
- The Catamounts improved to 10-6 all-time in title games while the River Hawks fell to 0-2.
- Home teams are now 32-7 all-time in America East championship games.
- Vermont is the 26th top seed to win the America East Tournament.
- John Becker surpassed Will Brown and Jim Calhoun and sits alone as the only America East coach to win six titles. In addition to this year, Becker’s teams captured the crown in 2012, ’17, ’19, ’20 and ‘22.
- Penn earned Most Outstanding Player honors in a second conference after earning the honor last season for Bellarmine in the ASUN.
About America East: The America East provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement and leadership, on and off the field.
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