Scotty Jones (17 points, 11 rebounds) posted his third straight double-double for the Catamounts who lost for just the third time in conference play. For the second straight year, Vermont (19-7, 15-3) will be the second seed in the upcoming America East Men’s Basketball Championship at Walter Brown Arena in Boston. On Saturday at 6:00pm UVM will play the winner of the New Hampshire-Albany first round game. The seventh-seeded Wildcats will take on the 10th-seeded Great Danes on Friday at 9:00pm.
“This is disappointing but we’re 19-8, and given all of the circumstances I think that is fine,” commented Vermont coach Tom Brennan who saw his team lose their second game in the last five after leading scorer Taylor Coppenrath went down with a wrist injury.
“So right now we need to swallow our pride and our disappointment and move on. We still want to win 20 games, and we still want to go to the NCAA tournament, and I’m hoping this loss will help gear our guys up for next weekend.”
Flavin scored 13 points in the second half that saw the Black Bears shoot 61% from the floor to overcome a 32-28 halftime deficit. In front of an overflow Senior Day crowd of 3,252, the Catamounts battled back to tie the game with six minutes to play but Maine outscored them 13-7 in the latter stages to grab the victory.
Vermont opened the contest strong jumping out to a 19-10 lead after ten minutes. But the Black Bears, behind 11 first half points by Udo Hadjisotirov, battled back to cut it to four at the break. After a layup by UVM’s Germain Njila opened the second half, Hadjisotirov hit another three pointer to cap a 19-7 run to give Maine control of the lead.
The Black Bears led 55-48 with 7:38 to go before Vermont made their comeback bid. Corey Sullivan scored five points and a Jones follow-up brought the Catamounts even at 57-57 with 5:58 left, and a Jones free throw gave them a brief 60-59 lead with 3:34 to go. Maine, which left the door open with poor free throw shooting (48% for the game), hit three straight in the last 30 seconds for the win.
Hadjisotirov finished with 16 including four-of-six three-point attempts for Maine (18-9, 12-6, who will be the fourth seed and take on fifth-seeded Binghamton next Saturday. Kevin Reed added 11 points as he and Flavin had a team-high seven boards. Eric Dobson added seven assists for the Black Bears who shot 47% for the game.
In addition to Jones, who went seven-for-11 from the floor, Sullivan added 11 points, nine in the second half. Point guard T.J. Sorrentine struggled to find his shot (four-for-19) scoring only 10 points but he had a game-high eight assists including the 400th of his career.
The game was the final regular season home game for UVM seniors Jones, Sullivan, Phelan and Matt Sheftic. The crowd of 3,252, bolstered by the addition of student courtside seats, is a new Patrick Gym single-game record. It was the fourth sellout for Vermont which set a new single-season attendance record drawing 2,660 fans per game.
