BALTIMORE-- UMBC men's basketball battled back from an early deficit and remained close throughout, but the Catamounts pulled away late in an 80-71 loss for the Retrievers. R.J. Eytle-Rock (London, England) led the way with 23 points in the loss. 

UMBC falls to 13-5, 9-4 AE on the year while the Catamounts improve to 10-3, 10-3 AE. 

Eytle-Rock led three in double figures with 23 points and a team best seven rebounds. L.J. Owens (Annapolis, Md./Severn School/William & Mary) poured in 12 points with Keondre Kennedy (Atlanta, Ga.) adding 11 in the loss.

Ryan Davis led three Catamounts with 21 points with Ben Shungu and Stef Smith also adding 20 for Vermont. 

Vermont used an early 9-0 run to jump out to a 12-2 lead before Daniel Akin (London, England) got going with four straight points to cut it to just eight. That sparked an 8-0 run off a Keondre Kennedy corner three to cut it to five, holding the Catamounts scoreless for over three minutes. 

That run would end on a Ben Shungu three, but the Retrievers kept chipping away. R.J. Eytle-Rock drilled a triple to cut it to three, part of a 13-3 run over six minutes. Darnell Rogers (Baltimore, Md./Indian Land (SC)/New Mexico JC) then hit back-to-back threes to give UMBC their first lead. Vermont would then go on an 8-0 spurt, but the Retrievers ended the half down 32-31 after Kennedy finished an alley-oop layup at the buzzer. 

Kennedy led the Retrievers over the first 20 minutes with nine points and three assists. Eytle-Rock added eight points and Akin poured in six and four rebounds. UMBC outscored the Catamounts 15-0 on bench points, but Vermont went 6-15 from three in the first half to keep themselves in front. 

Both teams went back and forth early in the second half, trading buckets but it was a Shungu three that gave the Catamounts a lead at the under 16 timeout. Then both offenses started to heat up. The Retrievers forced a couple of Vermont turnovers to cut the deficit to five. 

Vermont would extend their lead to double digits, but a Kennedy jumper and Owens triple cut it back down to five with just five to go. But the story of the second half was the Catamount offense who shot 67 percent in the half to pull away with an 80-71 win. 

UMBC outscored Vermont 19-6 in bench points, but Vermont used 34 points in the paint to seal the win. 

The two will battle tomorrow night at 5 p.m. with the winner taking the one seed in the #AEPlayoffs on ESPN 3.