America East: Back On Top! Vermont Wins 9th Men's #AEHoops Title

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont Catamounts are America East men’s basketball champions once again. Vermont won its ninth title all-time on Saturday morning in front of a sold-out crowd at Patrick Gym, dominating UMBC, 82-43.

Vermont (28-5) controlled play the entire way to win by 39 points, the largest margin of victory in an America East championship game history.

Ben Shungu scored 19 points and added six rebounds as he earned Reggie Lewis Most Outstanding Player honors. Across his team’s three #AEPlayoffs games, he averaged 19.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. He was joined on the All-Championship team by teammates Ryan Davis and Finn Sullivan and UMBC’s Darnell Rogers and Syzmon Wojcik.

UMBC’s Nathan Johnson, a junior with a perfect 4.00 GPA majoring in financial economics, was the men’s basketball Elite 18 honoree for having the highest GPA among champion game participants.

Winners of 22 of its last 23 games, Vermont will learn its NCAA draw during the selection show on CBS on Sunday at 6 p.m.

The Numbers

Vermont shot 57 percent from the field while holding UMBC to just 28 percent.
The Catamounts dominated the paint, outscoring UMBC 56-16.
UVM held a 39-28 edge on the glass.
Shungu’s 19 points came on 9-of-17 shooting.
Davis, the Player of the Year scored a game-high 20 points in over 21 minutes of action.
Sullivan added 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Rogers led UMBC with 10 points.

The History

With the win, Vermont wins its ninth title all-time with eight of those coming since 2003.
The Catamounts improved to 8-6 all-time in title games while the Retrievers fell to 2-3.
Home teams are now 31-7 all-time in America East championship games.
Vermont is the 25^th top seed to win the America East Tournament.
John Becker joined Will Brown and Jim Calhoun as the only America East coaches to win five titles. In addition to this year, Becker’s teams captured the crown in 2012, ’17, ’19, and ’20.

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.