UMass Lowell River Hawks Pressure Late, but Fall, 78-67, vs. Vermont

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The best and hottest team in America East and maybe the entire eastern seaboard came to Costello Athletic Center on Saturday to take on UMass Lowell. They brought with them plenty of support in the form of fans and an 11-game winning streak. Their experience and as River Hawks coach Pat Duquette said after the game, “togetherness” was a little too much for his team to handle. However, it must be stated that UMass Lowell (11-10, 3-6) made it interesting in the final minutes. Vermont (18-4, 10-0) held on to a 78-67 win on the road.

The experience that was mentioned is in the form of a starting lineup that has five seniors on it. No other school in this league can make that claim. The games they have played, the environment they have been a part of, really do come in handy when conference play got underway Saturday was another example. The Catamounts wasted little time in giving the home team and their fans a sample of what they can do. With the game tied at 5-5 in the early stages of the first half, Vermont would go off on a run that had the crowd in attendance buzzing. The 17-0 explosion had it all, layups in the paint from 6-8 senior Ryan Davis (20 points, eight rebounds) and Ben Shungu (24 points) knocking down mid-range shots and free throws. It did not seem to matter who had the ball on offense for Vermont the ball was going in the basket. The frustration on the River Hawk bench reached a boiling point when coach Duquette was hit with a technical foul for complaining to the referees. The Catamounts were on a roll, and it looked like UMass Lowell could not stop them. Lowell would play their best offensive basketball late in the first half. A 9-0 run got them back into the game. Allin Blunt (19 points) had four of those points. Max Brooks (14 points) had four and John Hall did the same. At this point, Lowell was down seven at 23-16 with 8:11 left. Another run by Vermont, this one of a 6-0 variety, had them up 32-18 with four minutes left in the half. Davis had four more on his way to a 14 point first half. Isaiah Powell chipped in with a bucket and he had 12 on the afternoon. The Catamounts were back up by double-digits and went to the locker room up 38-26.

The second half looked to be a carbon copy of the first. Vermont would reach its high water mark with ten minutes to play on a Shungu jumper that made it a 56-37 Catamounts. It would be their largest lead of the day. But instead of calling it a day, the River Hawks kept on fighting and it nearly paid off. An old fashion three-point play from Ayinde Hikim got it started. Blunt followed with an and-1 and it was 62-45 Vermont. Anthony and Allin Blunt’s back-to-back jumpers made it 69-51 with 5:43 to play. Brooks with two free throws made it 68-53. Kalil Thomas had consecutive three balls and it was a 10 point game at 69-59 with 2:48 left. Blunt had another three-point play then followed up by another Thomas jumper and it was a four-point game at 69-65. Lowell went on a 17-0 run of their own to give themselves a chance with 1:51 left. However, Vermont is in first place for a reason, and they showed it late. Justin Mazzulla (11 points) hit a big-time shot to stop the River Hawks momentum. Shungu took the ball to the basket for a lay-in to make it 74-67 with a minute left. Vermont would ice the game and win their 12th in a row with free throws in the final seconds. When it was over, the final score was 78-67 Catamounts.

Afterward, Duquette talked about Vermont being an “older and more physical team.” He thought the punch in the mouth his team took early in the game was something they never really came back from. He also made the point that if you are going to beat Vermont “you have to beat them at the defensive end” which on Saturday Lowell did not do. The River Hawks get right back at it on Monday night when they host Hartford.