Vermont Wins America East, Clinches Third Straight Automatic NCAA Tournament Bid
The Vermont Catamounts became America East Conference Champions yesterday afternoon when they defeated the UMass Lowell River Hawks 66-61 in the America East Conference Championship on their home court of Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, VT. If you are a Vermont fan you have to be happy about the fact that it is a great time to be a Catamounts fan considering this is the third year in a row they have won, the America East Conference tournament. While Vermont has lost the last two years in the first round of the NCAA tournament (against Arkansas in 2022 and Marquette in 2023) they are hopeful that this year, being their tenth NCAA tournament appearance in school history they will get their third NCAA tournament win of all time (they defeated Syracuse in overtime in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament and Lamar in a first four matchup in the 2012 NCAA tournament). Let’s take a look at how the Catamounts won the America East Championship!
Vermont looked to be the more prepared team from the opening tip of this one as they were up 16-7 on the River Hawks after the first six minutes of play in this one. However, by the first halfway mark of the first half the River Hawks had cut the Catamounts lead to just three points and UMass Lowell would head into the locker room with a three-point lead, up 32-29 on the home team. Coming out of halftime these teams would show that they were indeed the two best teams in the conference and how they were very evenly matched as after ten minutes of play in the second half Vermont would have a one-point lead, 47-46, with ten minutes remaining in regulation. However, in the last ten minutes of the game, the Catamounts would go on a 13-4 lead to put themselves up 60-50 with the game stopped with an official television timeout with 3:46 remaining in the second half. The River Hawks were unable to make a comeback in the last few minutes of this one as Vermont held on to beat them for the second straight year and become 2024 America East Champions.
As Vermont heads into Sunday where they will find out where they will head to and who they will play in the first round, they can’t expect to be a thirteen seed. While the Catamounts will without a doubt have a tough four-seed opponent on their hands head coach John Becker and his coaching staff have shown us before that they belong in the NCAA field of 64 when they almost upset the Arkansas Razorbacks two years ago. As the Catamounts hope to get a first-round NCAA tournament win with junior guards TJ Long, Vermont’s leading scorer on the season who had fourteen points in this conference championship game, and Shamir Bogues, who is also a huge part of the Catamount’s offense and led them in scoring against UMass Lowell yesterday be able to lead their team to an NCAA tournament victory? Will this finally be the year fans don’t regret picking Vermont in their brackets?
