WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Offense often came hard for the University of Maine this season against America East opponents.
Saturday night, the Black Bears did not have their most prolific scorer.
Vermont limited a gritty UMaine squad to eight points over the last seven minutes and finally found its shooting touch late to grind out a 50-40 quarterfinal victory at the University of Hartford’s Chase Family Arena.
“(We’ve talked) about keeping our composure, keeping with the plan and just continuing to defend and rebound and then offense will find itself eventually,” said Vermont coach John Becker.
Second-seeded Vermont (21-11) plays No. 6 Hartford in Sunday’s semifinals.
Coach Ted Woodward’s Black Bears bow out at 12-17.
UMaine was without senior guard Gerald McLemore — and his 19 points per game. The three-time, all-conference standout contracted a flu that has spread among team members during the last two weeks.
McLemore was hospitalized briefly Thursday to receive intravenous fluids, but was unable to recover in time and could not make the trip.
“Not having G out there, just his presence shooting the ball offensively, defensively, too — I thought we picked up the slack,” said senior co-captain Andrew Rogers. “I thought we all played well.”
The Bears tried to take McLemore’s absence in stride and trust in each other.
“We’re all very comfortable with each other, so it was definitely hard without him,” Rogers said.
“But he was there in spirit and we all talked to him before the game, so he was definitely rooting for us,” he added.
The Black Bears played inspired ball without their senior co-captain, but could have used his perimeter scoring skills.
UMaine went 0-for-17 from beyond the 3-point arc on its way to 32 percent overall shooting.
“Unfortunately, we would have liked to have made a few 3’s,” said Woodward, who explained UMaine had a couple of days to plan for McLemore’s potential absence. He refused to use it as an excuse.
“Gerald’s a great player, we’d love to have him here, but we had a lot of confidence in our (other) perimeter guys,” Woodward added.
The Bears’ outstanding defense and a balanced offense put them in position to make the upset bid. They led 30-24 with 13:13 remaining.
However, Vermont began to gain confidence and momentum when Brendan Bald and Matt Glass buried back-to-back 3-pointers 27 seconds apart to tie the game at 30 with 8:26 to play.
“It’s always good to see some shots fall and see the results on the scoreboard,” Glass said.
“It was a sense of relief. It took a long time to hit a shot, he added. “My teammates stuck with me and my coaches stuck with me.”
That helped energize the Catamounts and their fans. UMaine regained the lead for the last time on Kilian Cato’s nifty drive and finger roll, but struggled the rest of the way against Vermont’s man-to-man and 2-3 zone defenses.
The Bears had four turnovers in the last 6 1/2 minutes that led directly to eight points as Vermont ended the game on a 26-8 run.
“It was an obvious difference in defense from the first half to the second half,” said UMaine sophomore Alasdair Fraser (10 points, 7 rebounds), who also has been sick.“They came out and did a great job in the second half.”
The Catamounts took advantage of transition opportunities and were able to attack the basket effectively which led to a 13-5 second-half of foul disparity. Vermont converted 11 of 13 free throws in the final 6:45 on the way to a 14-6 advantage overall.
UMaine still trailed only 40-38 after a Raheem Singleton foul shot at the 3:28 mark and subsequently had three chances to regain the lead. However, the Bears could not convert.
Glass (16 points) stuck a 3-pointer with the shot clock running out at the 2:07 mark to push UVM’s lead to five, then Singleton (7 points, 4 assists) answered with an eight-footer, but Brian Voelkel (8 assists, 9 rebounds) found Glass underneath for the back-breaker with a minute to play.
Singleton was called for a player-control foul on the next possession.
Luke Apfeld contributed 12 points and seven rebounds for Vermont, which committed only two second-half turnovers after making 11 in the first half. Rookie of the Year Four McGlynn added eight points and Bald posted six points and five rebounds.
Junior Mike Allison contributed seven points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
Freshman Justin Edwards, another player affected by illness, went 2-for-14 on his way to only six points.
The Catamounts outrebounded the Bears 40-32.
the worst shooting team ive ever seen at div 1 level…FIRE WOODWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Men’s Bball team holds the distinction of being the only D1 program in the land to have gone it’s entire program history (93 seasons-est.1904) without a Conference Title or Conf. Tourney Title. Yes, you read that correctly. ZERO Titles!
Can someone at The University of Status Quo @ Excuseville please explain to me why this has become acceptable for so many years? Anyone?????????????????????????????????
And a Three Year Extension for Ted Woodward less than halfway into the season….That is ridiculous!
would you do a better job in terms of recruiting players to come to maine and do a better job then what Ted woodward did i don’t think so i find it funny that people who think they know anything about how to run a college program. Hide behind a computer and make statements like what you make. As i said am i disappointed in the outcome that maine had this year no i am not but i am not going to bash coach woodward and his coaching staff unlike some people who all they do is hide behind a computer screen
None of the sports teams are D1 caliber, (except hockey, for now) and all teams will continue to fester in mediocrity until they go D2 or move the campus to southern Maine where they will be more attractive to prospective D1 athletes. What do they say about successful restaurants? Location, location, location. Orono, Maine…..please.
Baseball. Ask the teams they played in the Regionals last year. Even before the tourney, one of the magazines called them one of the dangerous number 4 seeds.
Baseball just put a hurting on some southern teams. That means they are legit. Football just went to the playoffs. We can agree that hoops is disappointing, but Barron is on the right track.
They beat a horrible Florida A&M team twice who is 1-10, they lucked out winning 1 out of three against Clemson then got smoked by Florida St Friday night plus today. I’m not sure about the putting a hurting on southern teams.
check again…. baseball just got killed in 3 games at FSU their pitching has been terrible…..
We heard this all last year. It is early in the season, and Florida State isn’t a cream puff. Let’s see what happens as the season goes on. Last year the pitching gelled, they got Fransoso back from an injury, and then played very well. One of the magazines named them as one of the tournament’s most dangerous number four seeds.
You never know until the games are played, but they expect to have a good year. I see no reason to think that they won’t.
UMaine’s 3 most successful sports…Football, Baseball, and Hockey. 3 players on the hockey team from the State of Maine, 6 players on the baseball team from the State of Maine, and 13 people on the football team from the State of Maine.
It comes down to recruiting. Andy Bedard orginally went to BC, TJ Caoutte went to Villanova, Ralph Mims to FSU, and Nik Caner-Medley to Maryland. These 4 kids are arguably the 4 best HS players from our State in recent years…all 4 left State ( I know Bedard returned)
Just because a kid wins Maine’s Mr Basketball doesnt mean he is D-1 material! Let those kids go be good players at a D-2 or D-3 school! Its time to recruit harder in the Mass, NJ, NY areas. Obviously, what they’re doing is not working and hasnt been for quite some time now. Time to think outside the box a bit.
Womens basketball…ugghh! I honestly believe there are HS teams I watched play in the Eastern and Western Maine tournament that would have a chance to beat them! Im interested to see what Barron does over the next 2-3 years…only time will tell
Why was Pollard on the bench in the second half? Fraser had 8 points in the first half and barely touched the ball in the second half??
Coach Woodward played man to man almost exclusively in the first half, and it worked. The second half starts and he’s playing a 3-2 zone??? Maine chucked it from the cheap seats in the second half and the guards were not aggressive enough taking the ball to the basket. Need to get to the free throw line and work for high percentage shots in tight games. I hope Maine’s young players come back hungry and that next year’s team plays TOGETHER. This isn’t about getting your name in the paper or making All-Conference.