Burlington, Vt.-- UMBC men's basketball won their fifth straight, 66-64 against Vermont on Saturday. The Retrievers and Catamounts went back and forth all night, with neither team leading by more than seven points, the largest lead the Retrievers had in the second half. K.J. Jackson led the way with 18 points on 6-10 shooting. 

The Retrievers win their fifth straight to improve to 14-14, 7-6 AE while the Catamount snap a 12-game win streak and fall to 22-7, 12-2 AE. 

Jackson led the way with 18 points on 6-10 shooting, going 4-5 from three with three assists. Brandon Horvath (West River, Md./Southern) and Dimitrije Spasojevic (Vrsac, Serbia) also reached double figures with 12 and 10 respectively. R.J. Eytle-Rock (London, England) stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds and seven assists. 

Anthony Lamb led the Catamounts with 24 points going 6-12 from three. Stef Smith added 17 and Ben Shungu added 11.

Vermont came out of the halftime and retook the lead, but that was short-lived as L.J. Owens (Annapolis, Md./Severn School/William & Mary) drilled a three to end the spurt. Once again the Catamounts battled back to take the lead, but Spasojevic hit a big layup to give UMBC the lead back. 

Both teams would exchange turns with lead late in the half, but a 7-0 run put UMBC in front for good. Keondre Kennedy (Atlanta, Ga.) hit a big three and runner in the paint to force a UVM timeout, giving UMBC their largest lead. 

Late in the game, Vermont had a chance to tie or take the lead, but the game-winning attempt from Anthony Lamb was short on a good contest from Eytle-Rock to give UMBC a huge 66-64 win on Saturday. 

The Retrievers ended up shooting 56 from the field and 55 percent from three in the win, hitting 10 triples. UMBC held the lead for 28:27, not relinquishing the lead after Kennedy's three with 11 minutes left. 

Both teams got out to the races early as UMBC and Vermont combined for ten three's in the first seven-plus minutes. The Retrievers shot 66 percent early and went 5-7 from deep.

Vermont would take a brief four-point lead, but a big Ricky Council II (Durham, N.C.) triple in transition cut the deficit to just one. That fueled a 7-0 run to put UMBC in front by five. Dimitrije Spasojevic capped the run with a turnaround jumper after R.J. Eytle-Rock hit a tough layup between two defenders. 

UMBC would get some big stops late in the half to take a 36-33 lead into the locker room. The Retrievers shot 71 percent from the floor in the half, going 6-8 (75 percent) from the three. UMBC had nine assists on 12 made field goals with Brandon Horvath and K.J. Jackson each scoring eight points.

The Retrievers will now have two of the last three at home, starting with Binghamton on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Tickets are available at TicketMaster.com.