BURLINGTON, Vt. - A full team-effort that
was led by Mike Black's 14-point performance pushed the
University at Albany past Vermont, 53-49, in the America East Conference Finals
on Saturday, March 16 at Patrick Gymnasium. This is the first time in conference
tournament history that a number 4 seed took home the conference tournament
championship.
Behind Black's 14 points, the Great Dane bench came
up huge, scoring 27 of the team's 53 points. Junior forward Luke Devlin led the charge off the bench, scoring
12 points and shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and grabbed five rebounds.
Redshirt-freshman guard Peter Hooley filled the stat sheet off the bench
with eight points, four assists, four steals, and two rebounds.
Vermont began the contest
with a big 10-0 run to start with 17:18 left in the half. Trey Blue led the
charge with five points, one three-pointer off a missed free-throw to begin the
run.
Black stopped the momentum
with the Great Danes first basket to cut the deficit to eight, 10-2, with 16:57
remaining. The basket led to a 11-0 run and the Great Danes first lead of 11-10,
with 11:19 left in the half.
UAlbany's defense forced
five consecutive turnovers during a seven-minute stretch to obtain the early
lead.
Vermont took the lead back
at 14-11, with 9:09 remaining, and UAlbany responded with a 17-6 run to finish
the half. The Catamounts turnovers were key for the Great Danes during the run,
as Peter Hooley recorded three steals and converted
all three with layups.
The Great Danes led by
eight, 28-20, at the end of the first half. Black led all scorers at the half,
with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor.
The Catamounts started the
second half, like the first half, on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to two, 28-26,
with 15:49 remaining. Two big three-point plays by Ethan O'Day and Luke Apfeld
were the sparked the charge.
UAlbany responded with a
10-5 run to extend its lead to five, 38-33, with 9:28 left in the contest. Jacob Iati found teammate Blake Metcalf wide open for the slam to cap the
run.
With Vermont looking to gain
momentum from an out-of-bounds play for O'Day to nailed a dunk, UAlbany's Black
came right back down the floor and hit a big three to keep the Great Danes up
six, 41-35, with 7:35 left.
The Catamonts came back with
an 8-2 run to grab their first lead, 45-43, since the 11:20 mark of the first
half. Sandro Carissimo hit back-to-back buckets capping the run to give Vermont
the two-point lead with 2:50 remaining.
UAlbany's Iati responded
with back-to-back three pointers, his first points of the game, to reclaim the
lead, 49-45, with 1:10 remaining.
.
After Vermont's Trey Blue hit a layup to cut the
deficit to two, 51-49, Great Dane junior center John Puk shut the door with the final two free
throws to send his team dancing.
UAlbany's 24
wins are the most single season wins in program history. The Great Danes will
wait to hear who and where they play on ESPN's Selection Show on Sunday, March
17.
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